Attention:

News Editor

What:

Stamp dedication ceremony at the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc Wisconsin Black History Month celebration depicting the civil right leader Dorothy Height. The event with be attended by Michele Chikasa Anana, Publisher of UMOJA Magazine who will be honored and members of the local business and social communities.

When:

Saturday, February 25, 2017 | 5:30 p.m., program 6:00 p.m.

Where:

Goodman Community Center
149 Waubesa St.
Madison, WI 53704

Who:

Paul Nistler, Postmaster, Madison Post Office
Michele Chikasa Anana, Owner and Publisher, UMOJA Magazine
Terri Strong, President, Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Everett Mitchell, Dane County Circuit Court Judge
Zhalarina Sanders, Spoken Word Artist
Michelle Heitzinger, CEO, Susan G. Komen of Wisconsin
Vaunce Ashby, WI Historical Society
Roxi Hentz, CEO, Tomorrow Inc.
Nia Trammell, State of Wisconsin

Background:

As one of the nation’s oldest public service institutions, the Postal Service is honored to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Height, who dedicated her life to performing public service.

Dorothy Height worked tirelessly to advocate for racial and gender equality and inspired countless men and women to work in support of social justice issues.

So great was Dr. Height’s influence and accomplishments, that after learning of her death in 2010, President Barack Obama called her the “Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Dr. Height earned this title from her roles in events that sparked the civil rights movement and shaped American history. 

In 1937, she began working at the YWCA after transitioning from a career in social work. While at the YWCA, Dr. Height established its Center for Racial Justice.

While serving in her leadership role at the YWCA, Dorothy Height became president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1957, where she led many activities to advance civil rights.

In September 1963, when a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four young black girls, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asked Dr. Height to meet with the city’s grieving families.
That same year, it was Dorothy Height who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington and pushed co-organizers to include a young civil rights activist named John Lewis in the speaking lineup.

Despite Dr. Height’s contributions to this landmark event, in which she shared the stage with Dr. King when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, she did not receive the same recognition as her male counterparts — an omission she later wrote was an eye-opening experience.

Dr. Height’s work to support gender equality led to President John F. Kennedy naming her to his Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt.  In this role, Dr. Height attended the 1963 White House ceremony where President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act.

Height also co-founded and participated in a group called Wednesdays in Mississippi. Led by a diverse group of women, the organization worked in the South to register voters and recruit women into the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s. In 1971, Dr. Height furthered this work by helping form the National Women’s Political Caucus.

In addition to numerous honorary degrees, Height received this country’s two highest civilian honors. In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A decade later in 2004, President George W. Bush presented her with the Congressional Gold Medal.

This stamp is not the first honor the Postal Service has bestowed on Dorothy Height. In 2010, the Post Office on Massachusetts Avenue in Northeast Washington, D.C., was named in her honor. We are proud to once again celebrate her life as a trailblazer who led the way to stop social injustices.