: News

Filed Under:

Civil Rights Leader Honored with Post Office Soon

September 9, 2010
Play associated audio
comments

By Matt Laslo

The woman some call the unofficial "godmother" of the civil rights movement, Dorothy Height, may soon be getting a post office named after her in the District.

From the 1930s on Height fought simultaneously for racial and gender equality. She became one of the most prominent women in the civil rights movement as it made gains in the sixties. Next week D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is introducing a bill to name the post office next to Union Station after her. Norton says Height may continue to break barriers even after her April death.

"The Dorothy I. Height Post Office Building will be the first federal building in the nation's capital named for an African American woman," Norton said.

Congress has to approve the bill, but Norton doesn't expect opposition.

Arts & Culture

NPR

Decades Later And Across An Ocean, A Novel Gets Its Due

John Williams' Stoner sold just 2,000 copies when it was originally published in 1965. It's now acknowledged as a classic work, is a best-seller across Europe and the No. 1 novel in the Netherlands.

Food

NPR

Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

Politics

NPR

Political Takeaways: Headaches For The White House

Controversies dominated this past week's political headlines, leaving the Obama White House on the defensive, trying to contain any lasting damage. Host Rachel Martin talks with NPR's Mara Liasson.

Technology

NPR

Young Kenyans Build Mobile Apps For Local Use

College students and recent graduates crammed the top floor of a tech hub in Nairobi for a competition built around the theme "Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users." Africa has more than 600 million mobile phone users (approximately 11 percent of the global total) – and the number is growing.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.