Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, moving shortly thereafter to Rankin (March 24, 1912-April 20, 2010). Her first brush with activism came when she was just 11 years old, when she worked to integrate the Rankin Christian Center’s swimming pool. She helped organize the 1963 March on Washington. She was a longtime president of the National Council of Negro Women (1957-1997), and helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus. She attempted to attend Barnard College, but they refused her, as they had met their quota of two Black women. She was known for saying, “If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time.”