Obama calls Dorothy Height a hero and godmother of the civil rights movement

more images

more images

Obama: Height was godmother of civil rights era

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is calling the late Dorothy Height “the godmother of the civil rights movement” and a hero to many Americans.

Height led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. She died Tuesday at age 98.

Obama said in a statement that he and his wife, Michelle, were deeply saddened by the news.

He said Height was the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement and witnessed “every march and milestone along the way.”