Dorothy Height was intent on bringing a female voice to the table even in her old age.

She was, of course, one of the few women at the table as the conversations and strategy sessions that plotted the civil rights movement were taking place. And, of course, she was the only woman on the stage as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream," speech. She later said she wished that someone would have addressed women's equality during the march. Perhaps someone should have had the common sense to invite her as a speaker.

But even as recently as a few months ago, Height wanted to make sure women were at the table as a group of civil rights leaders -- Reverend Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous of the NAACP and Marc Morial of the National Urban League -- met with President Obama to discuss jobs. As the day of the meeting arrived, so did a massive snowstorm. Obama dispatched an aide to let Height know she need not attend because of the weather.

"True to form, Dr. Height insisted on coming, despite the blizzard, never mind that she was in a wheelchair. She was not about to let just a bunch of men in this meeting. It was only when the car literally could not get to her driveway that she reluctantly decided to stay home. But she still sent a message about what needed to be done," Obama said as he gave Height's eulogy at the National Cathedral.

"And I tell that story partly because it brings a smile to my face, but also because it captures the quiet, dogged, dignified persistence that all of us who loved Dr. Height came to know so well -- an attribute that we understand she learned early on."



Obama said Height, who died last week at the age of 98, had an "unambiguous record of righteous work." In a soaring speech that referenced the path from slavery to his being sworn in as this country's first African American commander-in-Chief, Obama said Height was nothing short of "a drum major for justice. A drum major for equality. A drum major for freedom. A drum major for service."

Hundreds of mourners packed the cathedral to pay tribute to a woman whose work stands as a permanent reminder to all humanity, a woman who spent the majority of her life fighting to improve the lives of women, African Americans and the causes of justice and equality.Opera singer Denyce Graves sang the hymn 'Great is Thy Faithfulness.' Camille Cosby paid tribute. Former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip James Clyburn are just a few of the politicians who were present. Bernice King, Dr. King's youngest child, Rev. Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou and others all paid tribute.

From her early years, Height was involved with the NAACP, marching to stop lynching in the South. She met educator Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1937 while working at the Harlem YWCA. Height became a leader in both organizations.


Height became head of the National Council of Negro Women in 1957 and led the group until she was 85. She continued to speak out about inequality well in to her nineties. Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

It was the efforts of people like Height that cleared the path for Obama to become president, he said.

Progress came from the collective effort of multiple generations of Americans. From preachers and lawyers, and thinkers and doers, men and women like Dr. Height, who took it upon themselves -- often at great risk -- to change this country for the better. From men like W.E.B Du Bois and A. Philip Randolph; women like Mary McLeod Bethune and Betty Friedan -- they're Americans whose names we know. They are leaders whose legacies we teach. They are giants who fill our history books. Well, Dr. Dorothy Height deserves a place in this pantheon. She, too, deserves a place in our history books. She, too, deserves a place of honor in America's memory," Obama said.

The president said Height's body of work was simply amazing.

Desegregating the YWCA. Laying the groundwork for integration on Wednesdays in Mississippi. Lending pigs to poor farmers as a sustainable source of income. Strategizing with civil rights leaders, holding her own, the only woman in the room, Queen Esther to this Moses Generation -- even as she led the National Council of Negro Women with vision and energy -- with vision and energy, vision and class.

But we remember her not solely for all she did during the civil rights movement. We remember her for all she did over a lifetime, behind the scenes, to broaden the movement's reach. To shine a light on stable families and tight-knit communities. To make us see the drive for civil rights and women's rights not as a separate struggle, but as part of a larger movement to secure the rights of all humanity, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity.

Despite her great accomplishments, Height never craved the spotlight, Obama said.

And yet, one of the ironies is, is that year after year, decade in, decade out, Dr. Height went about her work quietly, without fanfare, without self-promotion. She never cared about who got the credit. She didn't need to see her picture in the papers. She understood that the movement gathered strength from the bottom up, those unheralded men and women who don't always make it into the history books but who steadily insisted on their dignity, on their manhood and womanhood. She wasn't interested in credit. What she cared about was the cause. The cause of justice. The cause of equality. The cause of opportunity. Freedom's cause.

There are important lessons to be learned from Height's life, Obama said. We owe it to Height and the incredible work that she did to try and carry on with the tradition that she upheld for six decades.

And the lesson she would want us to leave with today -- a lesson she lived out each and every day -- is that we can all be first in service. We can all be drum majors for a righteous cause. So let us live out that lesson. Let us honor her life by changing this country for the better as long as we are blessed to live. May God bless Dr. Dorothy Height and the union that she made more perfect.