Legendary civil rights leader Dorothy Height, who spent most of her life battling for the empowerment of women and blacks and who had the ear of U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to Obama, died Tuesday. She was 98.
In 1963, Height was the only woman on the speaker’s platform when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.
Harvard professor Charles Ogletree called Height “an absolute genius.”
“Everything that we do today is influenced by her sacrifices decades ago, her marches as a teenager against lynching, her buying a building right on Pennsylvania Avenue to in a sense to talk about the slave trade, and her commitment to open up doors for others is unparalleled,” Ogletree said.
Height continued to fight for equal justice up until the end of her life. In 2008, she told NPR — while wearing a feathered purple chapeau with a fetching bow — that there is unfinished business in civil rights.
Teaneck High School in northern New Jersey looks exactly like the nickname locals have given it-”a castle on the hill.” A Tudor-style building it calls to mind a medieval fortress, the school is nestled in a cozy middle-class neighborhood just a 15-minute drive from New York City. With approximately 1,350 students, the school combines America’s rich diversity with academic advantages normally reserved for the elite private schools of Manhattan: The library is equipped with wireless laptop carts that can be rolled into classrooms to service every student. Free SAT preparation is offered, and video-on-demand allows teachers immediate access to digital media.
National Public Health Week 2010 has a focus on the special role communities play in building a healthier America, and the American Public Health Association is encouraging each one of us to make changes – both big and small – in our families, neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. As you know, strong, healthy communities are dependent upon strong public health systems. If every one of us took just a few small steps towards a healthier lifestyle, the next generation could quite possibly be the healthiest in the world! 
M. H. West & Co., Inc.’s CEO who is also a member of the Richmond Chapter of Continental Societies, Inc, joined two other members of the organization’s health committee, Allison Lawrence and Aldora Turner, to deliver baskets to the pediatric unit of Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital on April 1. With the assistance of WEST staff members, Continentals stuffed some 50 baskets with educational toys and games and a very few nutritious snacks for the Easter holiday season. Also the beneficiary of the Easter Baskets were the children in a local domestic violence shelter of the YWCA. The Health Committee of the Richmond Chapter is working with area youth and parents to help promote healthy lifestyles and practices. Continental Societies, Inc., a public service organization, dedicated to the socio-economic and cultural welfare of underprivileged children and youth, was organized in 1956 and incorporated nationally in 1972. The Richmond Chapter was organized in 1976. It embraces 42 Chapters in 20 states, the District of Columbia and Bermuda with a total membership of approximately 900.