B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

We mourn the loss of civil rights icon and pioneer Dorothy I. Height. An incomparable force for civil rights and social justice, Height spoke up for all those without a voice.

Height spent the vast majority of her 98 years as an unrelenting champion of racial and gender equality. She played a prominent, if often overlooked, role in the historic height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. She advocated self-reliance and the importance of a strong family and community.

Leading the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, Height was also a prominent staffer of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) system for more than 30 years. Her work helped pave the way for the YMCAs to become integrated.

Coming less than a week after the passing of another civil rights legend, Benjamin Hooks, a former director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), we are nearing the time when there will be no direct link to the individuals who prompted monumental social changes in our nation during the civil rights movement. We must ensure that their work for equality lives on in perpetuity.