We are gathered here today to celebrate the life, and mourn the passing, of Dr. Dorothy Height.

WHITEHOUSE: Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height

And that willingness to subsume herself, that humility and that grace, is why we honor Dr. Dorothy Height.

WHITEHOUSE: Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height

Recently the president gave Dorothy Height, the leader of the National Council of Negro Women, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

NPR: Bush's Black Legacy

Without women such as Dr. Dorothy Height and Cora Masters Barry and Dr. Skinner and others--women did grunt work in all the major cities.

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Well, Dr. Dorothy Height deserves a place in this pantheon.

WHITEHOUSE: Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height

Dorothy Height was a drum major for justice.

WHITEHOUSE: Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height

For Dorothy Height met the test.

WHITEHOUSE: Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height

Dorothy Height embodied that instinct.

WHITEHOUSE: Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height

And the reason we brought together some elders and some young people very briefly was not just to visit the Oval Office and see the Emancipation Proclamation, which is going to be on loan to us, but it's also just to remind us that there were some extraordinarily courageous young people like Dr. Dorothy Height, like Mrs.

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