In recent days, Americans have lost two civil rights leaders of the twentieth century, Dorothy Height and Benjamin Hooks.
Dorothy Height died this Tuesday at the age of ninety-eight. She witnessed more civil rights history than any other African-American leader of her time. She said the greatest change she witnessed was the ending of racial segregation(隔离) laws in the United States.
She was the longtime chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women. She was an activist, humanitarian and advisor to presidents including Barack Obama. He remembered her as “The godmother of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Dorothy Height grew up in Pennsylvania. She won a four-year college scholarship, the top prize nationally in a public speaking contest on the Constitution.
She arrived at school in New York City-only to learn that an unwritten limit of “two Negro students per year”had already been met. Dorothy Height: “I was accepted at Barnard College and I was denied admission when I arrived because they had a quota(指标) of two. And they did not know that I was not white. And so when I got there I was turned away.”
Dorothy Height went on to earn bachelor and master's degrees in four years at New York University. She worked with Marin Luther King Junior in the push for civil rights for blacks in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Yet she had to push to make herself heard as a woman among mostly male civil rights leaders. She was the only woman standing nearby as Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington
Dorothy Height received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal for her work for racial and gender equality.
【小题1】Which of the following best shows Dorothy’s suffering?| A．Dying of old age. | B．Being a consultant to Obama. |
| C．Being rejected by Barnard College. | D．Joining King Junior in fighting for blacks. |
| A．Dorothy Height was eager to be a civil rights leader. |
| B．It was difficult for then women to voice their opinions. |
| C．Dorothy made a difference in King Junior’s life. |
| D．Dorothy was the best woman of her time. |
| A．News report. | B．Biography. |
| C．Fiction. | D．Scientific journal. |
