Dorothy Height mourned

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Dorothy Height mourned

Photos: Civil rights leader Dorothy Height mourned in Washington, D.C., as her body lies in the National Council of Negro Women headquarters.

The funeral of civil rights heroine Dorothy Height will be held Thursday in the National Cathedral in Washington. Her portrait is carried by Kent Amos as her casket is readied to moved to Howard University.

The casket bearing the body of Dorothy Height, the leading female voice of the 1960s civil rights movement, arrives at the National Council of Negro Women headquarters in downtown Washington on Tuesday, April 27.

Members of the National Council of Negro Women gather outside the downtown Washington headquarters. Dorothy Height was president of the National Council of Negro Women from 1957 to 1997, overseeing a range of programs on issues like voting rights, poverty and in later years AIDS.

Rep. John Lewis attends a service for Dorothy Height at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington on Wednesday night, April 28.

Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attend a "Community Celebration of Life" memorial for Dorothy Height at the Shiloh Baptist Church.

Mourners file past the casket bearing Dorothy Height at the National Council of Negro Women headquarters in downtown Washington. As the council's president during the most urgent years of the civil rights movement, Height instituted a variety of social programs in the Deep South, including the "Wednesdays in Mississippi," a program that flew interracial teams of Northern women to the state to meet with black and white women there.

Former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman (left) arrives at the National Council of Negro Women in Washington, where Height's casket was taken for public viewing on Wednesday.

Vanilla P. Beane, 90 (left), a Washington hatmaker, talks about her friendship with the late Dorothy Height. Beane made many of Height's trademark hats.

Annette Edwards of Washington wears a button in her hat commemorating Dorothy Height's 80th birthday celebration. Height died April 20 at the age of 98. In 1929, Height was accepted at Barnard College, then rejected because the college said it had filled its quota of black students.

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin arrives for Delta Sigma Theta sorority's Omega Omega service to honor Dorothy Height on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at Howard University in Washington. Height, who died April 20, was the sorority's 10th national president.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) second from right, speaks with Rev. Jesse Jackson as they attend a service Dorothy Height at Shiloh Baptist.

Mourners file past the casket of Dorothy Height. When she became assistant executive director of the Harlem Y.W.C.A. in the late 1930s, one of Height's first public acts was to call attention to the exploitation of black women working as domestic day laborers.

Former Washington Mayor Marion Barry, currently a D.C. councilman, signs a book of condolences for Dorothy Height.

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The funeral of civil rights heroine Dorothy Height will be held Thursday in the National Cathedral in Washington. Her portrait is carried by Kent Amos as her casket is readied to moved to Howard University.

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