Dorothy Irene Height, born on this day in 1912, was an activist part of the "Big Six" of civil rights leaders (including MLK and John Lewis) who focused on issues facing black women, including unemployment, education, and voting rights.

Height is credited as the first leader in the civil rights movement to recognize inequality for women and African Americans as problems that should be considered as a whole, and was the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) for forty years.

While working with both the Young Women's Christian Association and NCNW, Height participated in the civil rights movement and was considered a member of the "Civil Rights Six" (a group with up to nine members, including Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young). In his autobiography, civil rights leader James Farmer noted that Height's role in the "Big Six" was frequently ignored by the press for sexist reasons.

"If the times aren't ripe, you have to ripen the times."

- Dorothy Height