---

Known as one of the architects behind the August 1963 March on Washington, Dr. Dorothy Height spent her life trumpeting for better opportunities for African American women, issues of unemployment, literacy, and voter awareness.  

On Thursday, local community leaders, most of whom had a personal relationship with the civil rights icon, gathered at the Neptune Township Post Office on Neptune Boulevard to commemorate the issuance a stamp in Height’s likeness as part of the areas Black History Month celebrations.

“Dr Height served every president since she first became a confidante of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt,” said E. Tonya Greenwood, the organizer of the event.  “She was often called to the White House to discuss civil rights issues of racial identity, gender rights and equality.”

Height’s stamp is the 40th in the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Series, which began in 1978.

Those in attendance included representatives from the organizations Height was affiliated with, including the NAACP, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the Continental Societies, and the National Council of Negro Women, for which Height founded and presided over for 53 years.

Middle school student Maude Pierre [below left] read Who Am I, which traced Height’s 98 years of life from her birth in 1912 in Richmond, Va. and time as an educator and administrator to being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

“This is the first time in our history here that we’ve ever had a ceremony like this,” said Greenwood [above left], who not only serves as Vice Chair of the National Council of Negro Women but a member of the Continental Societies, serving as the 10th National President from 2003 to 2007.

After returning from the stamp’s unveiling at Howard University earlier this month, Greenwood organized the local event because of Height’s connection to those who live in the area, she said.

“I just felt it was something significant because even though she is not from this area, many of the people who knew her and interacted with her are from this area,” Greenwood said.

For Greenwood, the event is a testament to the fact that ordinary people can make history, she said.

“Ordinary people don’t consider themselves a part of history,” Greenwood said. “It was an experience for me because I am a product of the civil rights movement. I knew her.”

Through the years, Greenwood said she witnessed Heights power to insight a call to action from the most unlikely sources.

“She would look at you and give you an assignment,” Greenwood said. “She never asked, she told you, and we never questioned. She would call meetings at midnight as if though it was 12 in the afternoon. She had an innate ability to spot people who are not trying to be seen and put  those people to the front to do things that they would not automatically do. If she took you under her wing, she took you under her wing. I learned a lot from her.”

[Video and photos courtesy of Chanta Jackson]

————————————————–

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

---