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ldea's review against another edition
4.0
Felt like reading some inspirational autobiography and this fit the bill nicely. Height gets a bit bogged down in describing all of the committees she worked with and giving shoutouts to her fellow organizers, but the sections on her work in Harlem in the 40s and the civil rights movement in the 60s are fascinating and inspiring.
the_discworldian's review against another edition
4.0
This is the memoir of a great woman. If you want to read about a kind, determined, unapologetically assertive Black woman who accomplished amazing things in her life, you should definitely pick it up. Written in a conversational style (I feel like she must have dictated it), Dorothy Height takes us through her life with friendly good humor. It's inspiring in showing what can be accomplished through organizing, advocating, and connecting, although also saddening in parts where we can see how far we have to go (many of the issues she writes about encountering in the 60s and 70s are still a problem today; especially, sigh, white feminists, we gotta do better). I will say sometimes it became difficult to remember which organization was which, because she worked with a lot of them and there were a lot of acronyms to keep straight. But also for me personally it was inspiring to see what could be done by a social worker. Social work has a problematic history (probably no more nor less than other professions, but hard for me to swallow because it's MY profession and it's supposed to be about helping people, damn it), but Dorothy Height is an exception. I hate to beat the word "inspiring" to death here, but I a) don't often use it, and b) can't find one that fits better.
rjohns5's review against another edition
4.0
What a life, what a legacy. Her story is remarkable and I'm so glad that hers is a name I'll now forever associate with the greatest leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
2000ace's review against another edition
5.0
Dorothy Height wrote not just a chronicle of the civil rights era, but a new American history book. Her fight has been for equality for people of color, and women as well. She is a gifted storyteller, who has been everywhere from Harlem to the White House, and has met the major cultural movers and shakers of about fifty years of this country's past. One thing I enjoy about Ms. Height is that fact that whenever she met someone, whether it was a sharecropper or a President, she interacted with them to further whatever project she was currently working on. She is one of the hardest working women in the equality business, and deserves a wider audience.
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