Civil Rights Legend Dorothy Height Passes
Dorothy Irene Height, long-time civil rights activist, chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and “godmother of the women’s movement,” died of natural causes at 3:41 a.m. today at Howard University Hospital, 27 days after her 98th birthday, announced NCNW in a press release.
Equal Justice Society President Eva Paterson spoke with Berkeley, Calif.-based KPFA radio earlier today about Height’s passing. We’ll add the audio from that conversation once it becomes available.
President Barack Obama mourned Height’s passing. “Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Dorothy Height – the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement and a hero to so many Americans,” said the President via the White House press office. “Ever since she was denied entrance to college because the incoming class had already met its quota of two African American women, Dr. Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality. She led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, and served as the only woman at the highest level of the Civil Rights Movement – witnessing every march and milestone along the way. And even in the final weeks of her life – a time when anyone else would have enjoyed their well-earned rest – Dr. Height continued her fight to make our nation a more open and inclusive place for people of every race, gender, background and faith. Michelle and I offer our condolences to all those who knew and loved Dr. Height – and all those whose lives she touched.”
“I am deeply saddened by the passing today of my dear friend and mentor, Dorothy Irene Height,” former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman said. “She was a dynamic woman with a resilient spirit, who was a role model for women and men of all faiths, races and perspectives. For her, it wasn’t about the many years of her life, but what she did with them.”
“Throughout her life, Dr. Height inspired countless women to become effective leaders. She advocated for families and encouraged children to value education and social justice. To draw on the words of NCNW founder Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. Height leaves us love, hope, the challenge of developing confidence in one another, respect for the use of power, faith and racial dignity. She was a national treasure who lived life abundantly. She will be greatly missed, not only by those of us who knew her well, but by the countless beneficiaries of her enduring legacy.”
For her years of service to the nation, which stretch back to her work with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Height was awarded America’s two highest civilian awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 by President Bill Clinton and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004 through an act of Congress.
Height’s name is synonymous with the NCNW, an organization she headed from 1957, when she was elected the organization’s fourth national president, to l998, when she became the group’s chair and president emerita.
She was a key figure throughout the Civil Rights Movement. She was the female team leader in the Civil Rights Leadership, along with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney H. Young, A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins and John Lewis. At the 1963 March on Washington, Height was on the platform when King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
During the civil rights era, Height led NCNW to deal with unmet needs of women and their families by combating hunger and establishing decent housing and homeownership programs through the federal government for low-income families. Her organization led voter registration drives and established “Wednesdays in Mississippi” where interracial groups of women would help at Freedom Schools. The organization’s accomplishments under Height are numerous. NCNW developed model international, national and community-based programs that were replicated by many other groups, from teen-age parenting to pig “banks” that addressed hunger in rural areas. In 1975, she initiated the sole African-American private voluntary organization working in Africa, building on the success of NCNW’s domestic projects.
NCNW established the Bethune Museum and Archives for Black Women, the first institution devoted to black women’s history, and the Bethune Council House as a national historic site. The organization dedicated the statue of the first woman and person of color on public land, Mary McLeod Bethune, in the nation’s Capitol. It also established the Black Family Reunion Celebration in 1986 to reinforce the historic strengths and traditional values of the African-American family. Height was also a key figure in the YWCA beginning in 1937 as assistant executive director of the West 137th Street branch of the New York YWCA.
From 1944 to 1977, she served on the staff of the National Board of the YWCA of the USA and held several leadership positions in public affairs and leadership training. Additionally, she served as director of the National YWCA School for Professional Workers. In 1965, she was named director of the Center for Racial Justice, a position she held until her retirement. In l970, Height spearheaded the YWCA Convention’s adoption of its “One Imperative” to the elimination of racism. Born in Richmond, Va., and reared in Rankin, Pa., Height’s career as a civil rights advocate began in 1933 when she became a leader of the United Christian Youth Movement of North America in the New Deal era.
She worked to prevent lynching, desegregate the armed forces, reform the criminal justice system and allow free access to public accommodations. She was also known for her extensive international and developmental education work.
She was one of 10 American youth delegates to the World Conference of Life and Work of the Churches in Oxford, England.
In 1938, Height was one of 10 American youth invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to spend a weekend at her Hyde Park, N.Y., home to plan and prepare for the World Youth Conference to be held at Vassar College. In 1939, she was a representative of the YWCA to the World Conference of Christian Youth in Amsterdam Holland. In 1947, Height became national president of Delta Sigma Theta after serving for three years as vice president. In 1952, she served as a visiting professor at the University of Delhi, India in the Delhi School of Social Work.
Height also experienced her share of the kind of discrimination that she spent her life fighting. In her memoir, Open Wide the Freedom Gates, she described her traveling to New York’s Barnard College at their request for an interview.
“Although I had been accepted, they could not admit me,” she wrote. “It took me a while to realize that their decision was a racial matter: Barnard had a quota of two Negro students per year, and two others had already taken the spots.”
She subsequently pursued studies at New York University, where she earned her Master’s Degree in psychology.
At its 1980 commencement ceremonies years later, Barnard College awarded Height its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. She has received 36 honorary doctorate degrees.
Senate Committee Approves Proposed Law to Reduce Discrimination in Death Penalty Sentencing (Updated)
UPDATE MAY 27, 2010: The Senate Appropriations Committee did not pass out the bill, which effectively kills it for this session.
The state Senate Public Safety Committee yesterday approved a bill proposing changes in the criminal justice system to ensure that no one is sentenced to die because of race or ethnicity.
Senate Bill 1331, the “California Racial Justice Act,” introduced on Feb. 19 by Sen. Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), is modeled after similar legislation already enacted in Kentucky and North Carolina. The Act seeks to remedy a defect in the criminal justice system where the race or ethnicity of the defendant, the victim or the jurors may skew how the death penalty is applied.
Five senators voted in favor of moving the legislation forward: committee chair Sen. Mark Leno, bill author Sen. Gil Cedillo, Sen. Loni Hancock, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Sen. Roderick Wright. Sen. Dave Cogdill and Sen. Bob Huff voted in opposition. The bill, with amendments, will be re-referred to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
EJS staff attorney Sara Jackson and Aundre Heron of California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty were among those testifying in support of the bill.
“If California continues to impose the death penalty, it is vital that we ensure that the justice system weighs all factors in a case and that no one is sentenced to die because of the race or ethnicity of the individuals involved,” said Sen. Cedillo. “The Racial Justice Act would create a procedure for the court to determine whether race was a significant factor in the decision to seek or impose the death penalty in each case. Procedural hurdles that prevent a full and fair hearing based on racial bias should be eliminated to ensure the integrity of our justice system.”
Research shows that the death penalty is not applied fairly in California. A defendant is three or four times more likely to be sentenced to die in cases where the victim is white than in cases where the victim is African American or Latino. Meanwhile, murder cases in which the victim is African American or Latino often remain unsolved. African Americans have long been over-represented on death row. In recent years Latinos have increasingly been sentenced to death. One California prosecutor testified that it was standard policy in his office to exclude African American women from juries in death penalty cases.
For more information, visit http://equaljusticesociety.org/law/rja.
White Fraternity Students Hold Racist Party in ‘Honor’ of Black History Month
This was written by D’Artagnan Scorza, the Director of the Social Justice Learning Institute.
African American students at UC San Diego were shocked and demoralized by a “Compton Cookout” that took place this past Monday February 15.
According to the Facebook invitation, students from several fraternities organized this party in honor of Black History Month, inviting guests to “experience the various elements of life in the ghetto.”
Males were encouraged to wear oversized clothing, chains, and display tattoos. As “ghetto chicks,” females were “to speak very loudly, while rolling their neck, and waving their finger.” They were also supposed to imitate other so-called characteristics of “ghetto chicks” such as having a limited vocabulary, using vulgarities, and smacking their lips.
After protests from the Black Student Union and African American students on campus, on the evening of February 18, 2010, several students broke into the university-funded television station SR-TV in support of the Compton cookout, calling the African American community “ungrateful niggers.” Upon investigation of the program host’s media offices, the campus discovered a note on the studio floor with the words “Compton lynching.”
The students involved with the initial event are currently planning a “Compton Cookout Part Deux” in March. This is in defiance of the frustration of African Americans and other underrepresented students of color.
These events have caused UCSD to earn the reputation of being a racist school and is a blow to recruitment efforts for Black students and other underrepresented minorities to the UCSD campus. Currently, UCSD’s African American student body comprises 2% of the total population, despite a much larger presence statewide. Our tax dollars are supporting an institution that has a reputation for tolerating such offensive behavior against Black students.
Responses
UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox issued a statement condemning the initial event as did the Associated Students (AS) organization. In addition, several hundred students have led protests on the UCSD campus. Fox agreed to a list of demands on the part of students and members of the community including the creation of a task force to improve the university climate for underrepresented students and launched an investigation into criminal activity and violations of the Student Code of Conduct.
What Is Needed
We need to raise awareness and apply pressure to the entire University system. As unfortunate as this circumstance is, it is not isolated to just one campus. Campuses such as UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz have faced similar problems in the past.
These types of events occur in part because of the small numbers of students of color. Without a critical mass of people of color, White students feel emboldened to allow their most base racist views manifest itself into incidents such as the “Compton Cookout.”
Organizers ask that letters of support and expressions of disapproval be directed to the UCSD Chancellor, Marye Anne Fox at University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093 and to the UC Board of Regents at University of California 111 Franklin Street Oakland, California 94607.
Furthermore, you can support the students by attending any sponsored event both on and off the campus. Finally, you can call on UCSD to explore disciplinary actions against perpetrators of hate and intolerance.
Dying While Black: An Examination of Race and the California Death Penalty
Photo by nodeathpenalty.org
The foundation of the Equal Justice Society is based on the premise that racial justice cannot be achieved when the law fails to reflect actual experience. Under existing equal protection law, the constricted “Intent Doctrine” (as established in the 1976 United States Supreme Court decision Washington v. Davis) ignores much of what we know about the dynamics of modern day discrimination and therefore deprives underrepresented groups access to our courts and redress for discrimination.
By requiring plaintiffs to prove a decision-maker’s conscious intent to discriminate, they are faced with an almost impossible burden.
Our focus on the Intent Doctrine intersected with the efforts of journalist Claire Cooper, formerly of the Sacramento Bee, to draw attention to the structural causes of the vast over-representation by Blacks on death row to a degree virtually unmatched in the nation.
We share Claire’s thoughts below:
In late 2008, I was asked to participate in a panel discussion on race and the California death penalty. What I learned in preparing for my remarks surprised me, though I had covered the state’s death penalty for almost 30 years as a newspaper reporter. Because this information has not been part of our death penalty debate, it may surprise you, too.
I learned, in sum, that blacks in this progressive state are over-represented on death row to a degree virtually unmatched in the nation. Death sentence rates for black defendants here (but not Latinos) far exceed black population rates and even black homicide arrest rates. I also learned that neither race-of-victim information nor any other available data seem sufficient to explain the wide disparities.
Please take a few minutes to read my Sacramento Bee commentary, “Scales of justice may weigh heavily against blacks.” Share with us your reactions and suggestions here. If you are in California, please consider how we might bring the issues to the attention of the state’s policy-makers. If you are outside California, please consider whether hidden racial issues are affecting the death penalty in your state.
My own view is that California should be collecting data on the way discretion is exercised in charging, prosecuting and defending homicide cases, as well as data on the racial composition of death penalty juries. But please share your understanding of the situation. Tell us how we can raise awareness of it and begin to fix it.
- Claire Cooper
EJS has examined the intersection of the doctrine and the death penalty before.
In August 2004, more than 60 people from the Bay Area legal and social science communities gathered for an EJS brown bag to discuss how we can use social science research to advocate for social justice and challenge existing legal frameworks
At the gathering, we discussed how the death penalty — in this case, at the federal level — and race is a good example of an arena with a high potential for frame-breaking.
There have been many cases where the Supreme Court ruled that racial disparities in the way the death penalty is administered are not that important even though in the last 30 years data show that there is a much greater likelihood that Black Americans will be sentenced to death in homicide cases (if and when the victim is white).
The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to ignore data showing racial patterns, and has instead insisted on an individual case-by-case assessment of fairness.
In the fall of 2005, following the Katrina disaster, EJS began working with a coalition of more than 140 U.S. social justice groups in an effort to focus international attention on human rights violations in the United States. EJS focused on race discrimination and the impact of the intent doctrine on civil rights litigation, and other groups dealt with issues ranging from voting rights to environmental racism and the death penalty.
NABJ Statement on Future of Journalism Senate Hearing
Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, today issued this statement:
On Wednesday, a panel of digital and traditional journalism industry experts testified at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and Internet Hearing on “The Future of Journalism” about the challenges and successes facing online news aggregators and newspapers today.
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has worked on behalf of newspaper journalists for more than thirty years, yet many of our most talented members are rapidly becoming unemployed or leaving the profession out of necessity.
The intellectual property of journalists must be preserved, and NABJ supports any effort that seeks to afford news agencies a greater capacity to retain and compensate black investigative reporters, editors and other journalists while respecting the growth of digital journalism.
NABJ Board Member Charles Robinson, who attended the hearing, told Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) after the hearing that diversity needs to be a part of the overall discussion and a more diverse panel should be part of future discussions. Robinson also told the Senators that NABJ was available to help draft a diversity component of any future legislation affecting the newspaper industry.
The recently released 2009 ASNE newsroom diversity census is disconcerting for revealing that black journalists are losing their jobs at a greater rate than any other ethnic group, but it is especially disturbing that minority ownership or representation in newspapers was not a topic at Wednesday’s discussion.
Of the five panelists, there were no black representatives and only one minority. It is disgraceful that a discussion on Capitol Hill about the future of newspapers can happen without doing more to incorporate the perspectives of America’s increasingly diverse population.
NABJ will continue to work with news agencies, publishers, editors and others to promote diversity and affirm that our members are offered cutting edge training to keep them ahead of the curve.
At the same time, we call on our nation’s leaders to open their eyes to the communities that surround them and ensure that black media representatives have a seat at the table as new legislation is discussed.
RaceWire: Addressing Obama’s Racial Coding, plus Lakoff, Mike Lux
Tammy Johnson on racewire.com talks about her concerns over the use of racially coded language in President Obama’s address to Congress earlier this week. Her post has additional comments in addition to the video.
It’s interesting to take Tammy’s analysis and compare it to George Lakoff’s pre-speech assessment of the “Obama Code,” his definition of how the President tends to “express his moral vision indirectly” – “connects with his audience using what cognitive scientists call the ‘cognitive unconscious,’ ” and utilizes “seven deep, insightful, and subtle intellectual moves.”
Mike Lux also weighs in on The Speech saying that the President’s address could not have been a clearer call for what Mike identifies as the “Big Change Moment” in his new book “The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be.”
NY Post Editorial Cartoon: Simian Stereotypes and Cartoonist Excuses
If nothing else, the now-infamous New York Post cartoon by Sean Delonas published Wednesday showing a chimp shot to death by police officers should be a clear answer to the question of whether we’re in a “post-racial” America.
As EJS President Eva Paterson and others have argued, the answer to that question is a resounding “no.”
In a piece published Wednesday, Cal psychology professor Phillip Atiba Goff states that persistent simian stereotypes tagged to blacks are not mere small and unimportant post-racial leftovers of the “bad old days,” but significant psychological mechanisms of discrimination.
“It is tempting to … downplay the significance of ‘isolated events’ of bigotry and ‘armless words or pictures.’ But precisely because the dream of post-raciality is seductive for so many, it is all the more important that we not forget that cartoons like the one in today’s New York Post are never isolated-and consequently, never harmless,” he writes.