March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled ….” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:20
Grace and Race Ministries, Inc. Celebrates the Life and Legacy of Dr. Dorothy Irene Height.
We thank God for the inspiring life of civil and human rights leader Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. Her life was defined by her efforts to promote racial and gender justice and equality. She demonstrated the impact personal experiences can have on a person’s desire to get involved in the issues of day when she told the story of being turned away from a YWCA swimming pool at the age of 12 because of the color of her skin. Dr. Height not only worked to change those policies, she credits the YWCA with launching her into civil rights activism.
Grace and Race Ministries, Inc is an ecumenical ministry of racial reconciliation working to advance racial understanding and healing in cooperation with churches and community organizations. We believe the work we have been called to do as ambassadors of reconciliation represents another step in the process set forth by Dr. Height in the ‘Step by Step’ booklet on interracial understanding, written by her for the YWCA in 1945. We owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Height for her encouragement as we developed the vision for this ministry reconciliation.
In her book, Open Wide the Freedom Gates, Dr. Height stated, “Tasks and meaningful activities undertaken together help people find each other around common goals”. Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Founder and President of Grace and Race Ministries, Inc, who was mentored by Dr. Height, says this ministry exists to advance that vision of bringing people together. We will find strength in her charge to us to provide “an educational and conversational platform for individuals to volunteer to become Ambassadors of Racial Reconciliation,” and to form positive, new relationships for the express purpose of moving beyond age-old wrongs and continued racial separation and isolation.
