Pa. Flags to Lower to Half-staff to Honor Height

Gov. Ed Rendell is ordering flags on Pennsylvania state facilities to half-staff in honor of the late civil rights leader Dorothy Height.

The flags are being lowered today. Height died last week at 98.

Height began her activism in the 1930s, marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years.

In a statement, President Barack Obama called her ``the godmother of the civil rights movement.''

Height received two of the nation's highest honors: the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

Former President George W. Bush hailed her grace and determination, and her efforts to make America ``a more compassionate, welcoming and just society.''