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JUNE 2004

Turned Away in 1929, Dorothy Height
is Embraced by Barnard College 75 Years Later

Seventy-five years ago, Dorothy Height was turned away from Barnard College, one of the historic Seven Sisters, during an era of racial quotas in higher education. In 1980, Dr. Height graciously accepted the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the College’s highest honor, in recognition of her inspiring national leadership on civil rights. Recently, Dr. Height was honored again with the title “honorary Barnard alumna” as the College directly acknowledges this wrongful exclusion and celebrates her life and achievements.

This landmark event was planned by the organization of Barnard’s Alumnae of Color, which will celebrate the largest number of African-American women graduates from Barnard (Class of 1974) during the College Reunion. The organization has spearheaded the establishment this year of a scholarship fund, named for Zora Neale Hurston, the famous African-American author, anthropologist and folklorist, who graduated from Barnard in 1928, the year before Dr. Height was excluded because of the quota in place at the time. A pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement and president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, Dr. Height this year celebrated her 92nd birthday.

Barnard President Judith Shapiro, who led the tribute to Dr. Height on the College’s behalf, said: “We affirm our commitment to racial equality as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark school desegregation ruling, Brown versus Topeka.

More than two decades ago, Dr. Height accepted the College’s highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. This was a gracious and forgiving gesture on her part, and one for which we are most appreciative,” said Dr. Shapiro. “Now she is allowing us as a community to embrace her and pay her this special tribute as an honorary alumna. In doing so, she generously expresses her remarkable lifelong commitment to a better world.”

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a member of the Class of 1974 and also a courageous social activist, organized the tribute to Dr. Height, who this year received the Congressional Gold Medal for her lifetime of achievements.

“Awarding Dr. Height the long-denied status of alumna acknowledges the dark past of American society. As an alumna, I am proud that Barnard has started a dialogue on racial discrimination, a necessary component of the process of healing and justice,” said Dr. Coleman-Adebayo, who, as a whistle-blower on the dangers of vanadium mining, was dismissed from her position on the Gore-Mbeki Commission, which provided U.S. assistance to the then-new South African government under President Nelson Mandela. Coleman-Adebayo voiced her concerns about the unsafe mining practices and the involvement of U.S. companies and later won the largest-ever settlement against the U.S. government for discrimination. She works for the Environmental Protection Agency as a Senior Policy Analyst.

Dr. Height wrote in her recent memoir, Open Wide the Freedom Gates: “In the summer of 1929 I [received] a telegram asking me to report for an interview at Barnard. When I arrived, breathless, in the office of the dean, I was asked to have a seat. It seemed an eternity before the dean finally came to speak to me. I apologized for being late. It didn’t matter, she said. Although I had been accepted, they could not admit me. It took me a while to realize that their decision was a racial matter: Barnard had a quota of two Negro students per year, and two others had already taken the spots.”

Winner of a scholarship for her exceptional oratorical skills, she entered New York University, where she earned bachelor and master degrees in four years. Dr. Height has been a leading advocate for civil and human rights for more than half a century; she was president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, through 1998, and worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young and others, participating in almost every major civil and human rights event of the 1960s.#

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