Civil rights leader Dorothy Height to speak Oct. 10

Forty years ago, Richmond native Dorothy I. Height and some friends started a group called “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” a group with a difference — an interracial, interfaith group of women that came together to break down 1960s-era racial barriers.

A major figure in the U.S. civil rights movement, Height, now 91, will speak at the University Oct. 10 at 4 p.m. in Alderman Library’s McGregor Room. Her talk is being held in connection with a gift, to the U.Va. Library, of historic documents linked to the Wednesdays in Mississippi group.

The free event, which includes a reception after the talk, is co-sponsored by the University Library, the U.Va. Office of African-American Affairs, the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies and the University’s Minority Rights Coalition. Height also will sign copies of her recently published book, “Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir.”

The materials from the Wednesdays in Mississippi Project of 1963-65 are being donated by Holly Cowan Shulman, research associate professor at U.Va. and daughter of Pauline Spiegel Cowan, who co-founded the group with Height. At the time, Height was president of the National Council of Negro Women and Cowan was a board member of the council and a member of the New York Citizens Committee for Children.