Full Text of HR1207 96th General Assembly
HR1207 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, State Representative Monique D. Davis and the | 3 |
| Illinois House of Representatives are saddened to learn of the | 4 |
| death of
Dorothy Irene Height, who passed away on April 20, | 5 |
| 2010; and
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| WHEREAS, Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, on | 7 |
| March 24, 1912; she grew up in Rankin, Pennsylvania, where she | 8 |
| attended racially integrated schools but felt the lash of | 9 |
| racial bigotry early in her life; during elementary school, a | 10 |
| music teacher in the mostly white school appointed her student | 11 |
| director of the school chorus, but a new principal forbade her | 12 |
| to take that position; at the next school assembly, the chorus | 13 |
| refused to stand and sing until Ms. Height was reinstated as | 14 |
| leader and the principal relented; and
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| WHEREAS, As a high school senior and her school's | 16 |
| valedictorian, Dorothy Height won a national oratorical | 17 |
| contest and a $1,000 college scholarship; when the college of | 18 |
| her choice, Barnard in New York, informed her that the college | 19 |
| already admitted its quota of black students, she instead went | 20 |
| to New York University, where she graduated in 3 years and | 21 |
| received a master's degree in educational psychology in her 4th | 22 |
| year; and
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| WHEREAS, Dorothy Height began her professional career as a | 2 |
| caseworker for the New York City Welfare Department; around | 3 |
| this time, she got her start as a civil rights activist through | 4 |
| Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr., pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist | 5 |
| Church in Harlem, and the pastor's son, Rev. Adam Clayton | 6 |
| Powell Jr., who later represented Harlem in the U.S. House of | 7 |
| Representatives; and
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| WHEREAS, After attending an international church youth | 9 |
| conference in London in the summer of 1937, Dorothy Height | 10 |
| returned to New York with the conviction that she needed to | 11 |
| operate from a broader base than that of a welfare caseworker; | 12 |
| that November, after a visit by Eleanor Roosevelt at the Harlem | 13 |
| branch of the YWCA, she quit her job as a welfare caseworker | 14 |
| and joined the staff of the Harlem YWCA; she remained a | 15 |
| full-time YWCA staffer until 1975; during her time at the YWCA, | 16 |
| she was instrumental in bringing about an interracial charter | 17 |
| for YWCAs in 1946; and
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| WHEREAS, In the 1940s, Dorothy Height went to Washington to | 19 |
| serve as chief of the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA branch; she joined | 20 |
| the staff of the national YWCA board in 1944 and, until 1975, | 21 |
| remained on that staff with a variety of responsibilities, | 22 |
| including leadership training and interracial and ecumenical | 23 |
| education; in 1965, she organized and became the director of | 24 |
| the YWCA's Center for Racial Justice, remaining in that |
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| position until her retirement from the YWCA board in 1975; she | 2 |
| also served as a visiting professor at the Delhi School of | 3 |
| Social Work in India and directed studies around the world on | 4 |
| issues involving human rights; and
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| WHEREAS, Dorothy Height was renowned throughout the world | 6 |
| for her work in the civil rights movement; in the 1930s, she | 7 |
| participated in protests in Harlem; in the 1940s, she lobbied | 8 |
| First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on behalf of civil rights causes; | 9 |
| in the 1950s, she prodded President Dwight D. Eisenhower to | 10 |
| move more aggressively on school desegregation issues; in the | 11 |
| turmoil of the civil rights struggles in the 1960s, she helped | 12 |
| orchestrate strategy with various leaders of the civil rights | 13 |
| movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Roy | 14 |
| Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Whitney Young, James Farmer, | 15 |
| Bayard Rustin, and John Lewis; in August of 1963, she was on | 16 |
| the platform with Martin Luther King Jr. when he delivered his | 17 |
| "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, | 18 |
| D.C.; when President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act | 19 |
| in 1963, she was among those invited to the White House to | 20 |
| witness the ceremony; she returned to the White House in 1998 | 21 |
| for a ceremony marking the 35th anniversary of the Equal Pay | 22 |
| Act to hear President Clinton urge the passage of additional | 23 |
| laws aimed at equalizing pay for men and women; she was also | 24 |
| among the few women to speak at the Million Man March on the | 25 |
| Mall in 1995; and
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| WHEREAS, Dorothy Height served as president of the National | 2 |
| Council of Negro Women for 40 years until she relinquished the | 3 |
| title in 1997; under her leadership, the National Council of | 4 |
| Negro Women sponsored voter registration drives and organized | 5 |
| an education foundation for student activists who interrupted | 6 |
| their education to do civil rights work; the organization | 7 |
| operated a program called Wednesdays in Mississippi, which | 8 |
| consisted of weekly trips to Mississippi by interracial groups | 9 |
| of women to assist at Freedom Schools and voter registration | 10 |
| campaigns at great risk to their lives; in the 1970s and 1980s, | 11 |
| the council helped organize and operate development projects in | 12 |
| African countries and ran a "pig bank" project in rural | 13 |
| Mississippi that gave pigs to poor, hungry families so they | 14 |
| could raise them and give 2 pigs from subsequent litters back | 15 |
| into the bank for another family; and | 16 |
| WHEREAS, Dorothy Height became national president of the | 17 |
| Delta Sigma Theta sorority in 1947; she held that position | 18 |
| until 1957; she also served on the advisory council of the | 19 |
| White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and | 20 |
| Universities and the National Advisory Council on Aging; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1980, Dorothy Height was chosen to receive | 22 |
| Barnard's Medal of Distinction, the highest honor the college | 23 |
| can give; in 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded her the |
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| Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian | 2 |
| honor; on March 24, 2004, she received the Congressional Gold | 3 |
| Medal, the highest decoration that Congress can bestow; she was | 4 |
| also given 36 honorary doctorates from many colleges and | 5 |
| universities, including Harvard University and Princeton | 6 |
| University; and
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| WHEREAS, Dorothy Height is survived by her sister, | 8 |
| Anthanette Height Aldridge; and | 9 |
| WHEREAS, Dorothy Height will be remembered fondly by her | 10 |
| family, friends, and the many people she helped for her | 11 |
| incredible courage and her tireless attitude to obtaining | 12 |
| equality for every man and woman in our nation and throughout | 13 |
| the world; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 15 |
| NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 16 |
| mourn, along with her family and friends, the passing of | 17 |
| Dorothy Irene Height; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 19 |
| presented to the family of Dorothy Height as an expression of | 20 |
| our sympathy.
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