Miami, FL —Last month the U.S. Postal Service inducted late Civil Rights Advocate Dr. Dorothy Height (1912–2010) as the 40th inductee in the Black Heritage Stamp Series.
In March for Women’s History Month, Miami Postmaster Enrique M. Suarez will present an enlargement of the stamp to local officials at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22 Ave, Miami, FL 33142. The public is invited to attend the celebration at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 14.
In 1963, the Height-led National Council of Negro Women joined the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership. Height was an architect of the August 1963 March on Washington, where she shared the stage with Martin Luther King Jr. It was Height who pushed to include a voice of youth like John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and insisted on no time limits for King’s speech.
Gender equality also was important to Height, who fought for the rights of women, particularly women of color. President John F. Kennedy named her to his Commission on the Status of Women, which was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. Height attended the 1963 White House ceremony where Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. In 1971, she helped form the National Women’s Political Caucus.
In 1977, Height officially retired from the Young Women’s Christian Association (now known as YWCA), for which she worked for 40 years. In addition to numerous honorary degrees, Height received the nation’s two highest civilian honors. In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A decade later, President George W. Bush presented her with the Congressional Gold Medal. In 2009, she was a guest of Barack Obama when he was sworn in as the nation’s 44th president.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
# # #
Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom.
Follow us on twitter.com/USPS and like us at facebook.com/USPS. For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and usps.com/postalfacts.
