Civil rights champion Dorothy Height was LGBT ally

Civil rights activist Dorothy Height passed away on Tuesday, April 20, at the age of 98. Height leaves her behind a legacy of strength, integrity, and the pursuit of equality.

Height joined the National Council of Negro Women at age twenty-five, after receiving a master's degree in educational psychology from New York University in 1933, and that was the year her lifelong interest in activism began. During the next decades spent fighting for the rights of African Americans and women, Height also served as the National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority from 1946 until she was named president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1957. She organized "Wednesdays in Mississippi," a time when black and white women from the North and South could come together and create a constructive dialogue about race and civil rights, during the '60s.

Height had many an ear in the White House; she provided counsel for first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, urged President Dwight D. Eisenhower to desegregate schools, and encouraged President Lyndon B. Johnson to appoint black women to positions of power within the government. She served as a consultant on African affairs to the Secretary of State and sat on committees such as the President's Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped, and the President's Committee on the Status of Women.

Height worked closely with Coretta Scott King, widow of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Elizabeth Birch, then-president of the Human Rights Campaign, in the name of LGBT rights when the Employment Non-Discrimination Act faced its first vote in 1996.

In 2004, Height was recognized by Barnard College as an "honorary alumna," despite never having attended. She was offered admission to the school in 1929, but did not attend because the school's unspoken limit of two black students per year had already been reached.

Height was seated among dignitaries and considered an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 29, 2009. She served as the chairperson of the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and attended the National Black Family Reunion, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., every year until her death.

Height was the recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal, and was been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

"A huge part of Dorothy Height's legacy will be the grace with which she directed her power for the good of all people," Dorothy Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, said. "As an African-American woman in the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights, I am so honored to have met her, witnessed her leadership, and benefited from her extraordinary sacrifices."

After her death, President Obama called Height a hero, saying she "served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement -- witnessing every march and milestone along the way."

Height died at 3:41 a.m. on April 20, said Howard University Hospital spokesman Ron Harris. No cause of death was given.