R.I.P. Dorothy I. Height

Civil rights leader Dorothy Heights passed away early this morning at Howard University Hospital. Ms. Heights was 98 and had served as the president and then chair emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women.

She was supposed to go to Barnard but they'd already accepted two African American students, thereby meeting their quota. Yes, really. She came up with some of the most well-known civil rights leaders, from the Revs. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and Jr. to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mary McLeod Bethune. A humanitarian and feminist, she was there to see JFK sign the Equal Pay Act in 1963.

I think often of her quote: "If the times aren't ripe, you have to ripen the times."

Please read her amazing obituary.