A review by the_discworldian
Open Wide the Freedom Gates by Dorothy Height

4.0

This is the memoir of a great woman. If you want to read about a kind, determined, unapologetically assertive Black woman who accomplished amazing things in her life, you should definitely pick it up. Written in a conversational style (I feel like she must have dictated it), Dorothy Height takes us through her life with friendly good humor. It's inspiring in showing what can be accomplished through organizing, advocating, and connecting, although also saddening in parts where we can see how far we have to go (many of the issues she writes about encountering in the 60s and 70s are still a problem today; especially, sigh, white feminists, we gotta do better). I will say sometimes it became difficult to remember which organization was which, because she worked with a lot of them and there were a lot of acronyms to keep straight. But also for me personally it was inspiring to see what could be done by a social worker. Social work has a problematic history (probably no more nor less than other professions, but hard for me to swallow because it's MY profession and it's supposed to be about helping people, damn it), but Dorothy Height is an exception. I hate to beat the word "inspiring" to death here, but I a) don't often use it, and b) can't find one that fits better.