In recent days, Americans have lost two civil rights leaders of the twentieth century, Dorothy Height and Benjamin Hooks.

Dorothy Height died Tuesday at the age of ninety-eight. She witnessed more civil rights history than any other African-American leader of her time. She said the greatest change she witnessed was the ending of racial segregation laws in the United States.

She was the longtime chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women. She was an activist, humanitarian and adviser to presidents including Barack Obama. He remembered her as "the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement."