Open wide the freedom gates : a memoir / Dorothy Height ; with a foreword by Maya Angelou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Height, Dorothy I. (Dorothy Irene), 1912-2010.

Contributor:

Angelou, Maya, writer of foreword.

Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Height, Dorothy I. (Dorothy Irene), 1912-2010.

Height, Dorothy I.

National Council of Negro Women--Biography.

National Council of Negro Women.

African American women civil rights workers--Biography.

African American women civil rights workers.

Civil rights workers--United States--Biography.

Civil rights workers.

United States.

African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century.

African Americans.

African Americans--Civil rights.

History.

African Americans--Social conditions--1964-1975.

African Americans--Social conditions.

African Americans--Social conditions--1975-.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Penn Provenance:

Banks, Joanna (donor) (Banks Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xi pages, 1 unnumbered page, 322 pages, 2 unnumbered pages, 8 pages of unnumbered plates : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

Edition:

First Edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : PublicAffairs, 2003.

Summary:

Dorothy Height marched at major civil rights rallies, sat through tense White House meetings, and witnessed every significant victory in the struggle for racial equality. Yet as the sole woman among powerful, charismatic men, and as someone whose personal ambition was always secondary to her passion for her cause, she has received little mainstream recognition -- until now. In her remarkable memoir, Dr. Height reflects on a life of service and leadership. We witness her childhood encounters with racism in her hometown of Rankin, Pennsylvania; the thrill of New York college life during the Harlem Renaissance; and her first battles as a young welfare caseworker during the Depression. We see her march through Times Square in protest against lynchings. We sit with her onstage as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. We meet the extraordinary people she knew intimately throughout the decades: W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary McLeod Bethune, Adam Clayton Powell Sr., Langston Hughes, W.C. Handy, and many others. And we watch as she leads the National Council for Negro Women for forty-one years, working tirelessly to join people in the women's movement to those in Civil Rights Movement.

Dorothy Height tells us what really happened in those crucial closed-door meetings with Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and A. Phillip Randolph. It is she who urges the men to set aside their factional differences and forge a united Civil Rights Movement. Ever honest and steadfast, her diplomatic counsel is sought by U.S. Presidents from Eisenhower to Clinton. After the fierce battles of the 1960s, Dr. Height focuses her attention on troubled black communities. She devotes her energies to organizing and educating at the grassroots, fighting to combat rural poverty, educate about AIDS, discourage teenage pregnancy, and promote black family values. In 1994, her efforts are officially recognized. Along with Rosa Parks, she receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton.

Contents:

A "Little Old Lady"

Keeping the Faith

Coming of Age in Harlem

"Me Culled Too"

Building a New World

Turning Points

Wartime Washington

Step by Step

The Land of the Free

"Women Are the Shock Absorbers"

Behind th "Cotton Curtain"

Mississippi, Crucible of Change

Living up to Our Promise

Citizen of the World

Making Common Cause

A Place in the Sisterhood

Building a Legacy

Home at Last

A Family of Friends

"Temples Still Undone".

Notes:

"Book design by Mark McGarry, Texas Type & Book Works."

"Set in Caslon 540."

"Jacket design: Lisa Hamilton."

Includes index.

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Banks Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2018 by Joanna Banks.

Banks Collection copy: dustjacket retained.

Banks Collection copy has "First Edition" statement wanting.

ISBN:

1586481576 :

OCLC:

51969130