D.C. on Track for Post Office Named for Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Height

By Matt Laslo

The District may soon be getting its first post office named after an African-American woman.

Before her death this year Dorothy Height played a prominent role in the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties.

According to D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Height helped usher through three landmark civil rights bills.

When Congress returns next week Norton will introduce a bill to name the historic post office by Union Station after Height, which she says is only fitting.

"Dorthy Height already had every single national honor of any significance. From the NAACP Spingarn Medal, to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to the Congressional Gold Medal. So what is left my friends?" Holmes Norton says. "This is all that's left."

Congress will still have to okay the measure, Norton says she doesn't think the legislation will face any opposition.

"I expect this one to be unanimous even in this divided Congress," she says.