+
upworthy
Most Shared

Why it's a huge deal that Dorothy Height's face will soon be on a postage stamp.

History books often forget to mention Dorothy Height. Here's why they shouldn't.

You probably haven’t heard of Dorothy Height, but you should definitely get to know who she was.    

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

An often-forgotten figure in civil rights history, Height helped change the lives of black Americans and women everywhere. Now, she is being honored with her very own postage stamp in 2017. Height joins an impressive list of honorees in the U.S. Postal Service's Black Heritage stamp series, including Harriet Tubman, Alvin Ailey, and James Baldwin.  


Because of Height’s gender, she, like many other women during the civil rights era, is often left out of history books. But ever the modest citizen, Height focused on the cause as opposed to the accolades: "You will accomplish a great deal if you do not worry about who will get the credit,” Height wrote in her 2003 memoir.

During Height’s 98 years on Earth, the unsung hero did a lot of amazing things. But four achievements really stand out:

1. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) for 40 years.    

Height led the nonprofit from 1957 to 1998, dedicating her leadership to advancing opportunities for women of color. Height was placed in the role during the peak of the Civil Rights movement, a daunting task during a time of racial violence. She offered up the NCNW headquarters as a meeting place for national organizers and participants in the historic 1963 March on Washington.

She also helped organize and launch a project called “Wednesday in Mississippi.” The successful project brought racially mixed groups of women together to visit rural areas of Mississippi and encourage voter registration among black citizens and foster dialogue across various groups of people. During Height’s tenure, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

Photo by Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty Images

2. Height helped form the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom organization.

In 1989, Height, along with 16 African-American women and one man signed a declaration that supported pro-choice reproductive rights. In 1990, Height was also essential in creating a reproductive rights organization as a way for African-American women to show their support for Roe v. Wade.

3. She also helped found the Women's Political Caucus.

Working tirelessly to create systems where women could empower themselves, Height helped found the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), a grass roots organization designed to increase women's participation in the political process. Found in 1971, the organization focuses on recruiting, vetting, and training women who are looking to get elected in local and national elections.

Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images

4. Oh, and she counseled presidents on how to best help black women too.

After being barred from attending Barnard College because of a racial quota (a university Height later received an honorary degree from), Height studied at New York University and Columbia University and obtained a bachelor's degree and a master's degree.

Her education and work ethic was recognized by many in the national government, leading Height to meet with political figures and civil rights leaders like Eleanor Roosevelt and Bill Clinton. Since then, she's counseled a number of presidents, including Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bill Clinton, on how to best assist black women during a changing world. Height was likely one of the first people to understand the concept of intersectionality, and she worked to expand alliance among people with various identities and backgrounds because of that.

Height meets Michele Obama. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images  

Height's life shows us that the work of fighting for a better America is never over, but always necessary.

Her incredible accomplishments deserve more recognition than they've received, and this postage stamp honor is a step towards doing so.

Planet

Easy (and free!) ways to save the ocean

The ocean is the heart of our planet. It needs our help to be healthy.

Ocean Wise

Volunteers at a local shoreline cleanup

True

The ocean covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface and serves as our planet’s heart. Ocean currents circulate vital heat, moisture, and nutrients around the globe to influence and regulate our climate, similar to the human circulatory system. Cool, right?

Our ocean systems provide us with everything from fresh oxygen to fresh food. We need it to survive and thrive—and when the ocean struggles to function healthfully, the whole world is affected.

Pollution, overfishing, and climate change are the three biggest challenges preventing the ocean from doing its job, and it needs our help now more than ever. Humans created the problem; now humans are responsible for solving it.

#BeOceanWise is a global rallying cry to do what you can for the ocean, because we need the ocean and the ocean needs us. If you’re wondering how—or if—you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding YES. There are a myriad of ways you can help, even if you don’t live near a body of water. For example, you can focus on reducing the amount of plastic you purchase for yourself or your family.

Another easy way to help clean up our oceans is to be aware of what’s known as the “dirty dozen.” Every year, scientists release an updated list of the most-found litter scattered along shorelines. The biggest culprit? Single-use beverage and food items such as foam cups, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. If you can’t cut single-use plastic out of your life completely, we understand. Just make sure to correctly recycle plastic when you are finished using it. A staggering 3 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans annually. Imagine the difference we could make if everyone recycled!

The 2022 "Dirty Dozen" ListOcean Wise

If you live near a shoreline, help clean it up! Organize or join an effort to take action and make a positive impact in your community alongside your friends, family, or colleagues. You can also tag @oceanwise on social if you spot a beach that needs some love. The location will be added to Ocean Wise’s system so you can submit data on the litter found during future Shoreline Cleanups. This data helps Ocean Wise work with businesses and governments to stop plastic pollution at its source. In Canada, Ocean Wise data helped inform a federal ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Small but important actions like these greatly help reduce the litter that ends up in our ocean.

Ocean Wise, a conservation organization on a mission to restore and protect our oceans, is focused on empowering and educating everyone from individuals to governments on how to protect our waters. They are making conservation happen through five big initiatives: monitoring and protecting whales, fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity, innovating for a plastic-free ocean, protecting and restoring fish stocks, and finally, educating and empowering youth. The non-profit believes that in order to rebuild a resilient and vibrant ocean within the next ten years, everyone needs to take action.

Become an Ocean Wise ally and share your knowledge with others. The more people who know how badly the ocean needs our help, the better! Now is a great time to commit to being a part of something bigger and get our oceans healthy again.

It's incredible what a double-sided magnet can do.


A new trend in treasure hunting called magnet fishing has blown up over the past two years, evidenced by an explosion of YouTube channels covering the hobby. Magnet fishing is a pretty simple activity. Hobbyists attach high-powered magnets to strong ropes, drop them into waterways and see what they attract.

The hobby has caught the attention of law enforcement and government agencies because urban waterways are a popular place for criminals to drop weapons and stolen items after committing a crime. In 2019, a magnet fisherman in Michigan pulled up an antique World War I mortar grenade and the bomb squad had to be called out to investigate.


Keep ReadingShow less
Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
Science

Researchers dumped tons of coffee waste into a forest. This is what it looks like now.

30 dump truck loads and two years later, the forest looks totally different.

One of the biggest problems with coffee production is that it generates an incredible amount of waste. Once coffee beans are separated from cherries, about 45% of the entire biomass is discarded.

So for every pound of roasted coffee we enjoy, an equivalent amount of coffee pulp is discarded into massive landfills across the globe. That means that approximately 10 million tons of coffee pulp is discarded into the environment every year.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Video of sisters trying to fix a DIY haircut perfectly captures the chaos of sisterhood

“This is THE sisters experience…you captured the whole thing."

@palmview956oficial/TikTok

Sisterhood in a nutshell

Ask any group of sisters what it was like growing up with each other, and they will undoubtedly use the word chaos. Girlhood in itself is a bit of a delightfully feral time. Add yet another wild child (or more) into the mix, and you never know what’s going to happen.

But there’s also a beautiful loyalty. Sure, sisters can turn from friends to enemies on a dime, but in those purer moments, you’ll see them stop at nothing to help one another.

And it’s all these aspects, and everywhere in between, that were captured in a hilarious TikTok as three sisters banded together to fix a DIY haircut gone wrong…the day before school picture day, no less.
Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Mom tells wild story of how her daughter kidnapped a 'chocolate baby' while out grocery shopping

People have a sneaking suspicion that the little girl has seen 'Corina, Corina' one too many times.

Mom shares wild story of how her daughter kidnapped a baby

Sometimes we hear a story that makes us collectively confused. Should we be offended? Laugh? Donate to a parents future bail fund for their children? It's really a toss up but the consensus on this mom's eyebrow raising story is that laughter and bail money are both appropriate responses.

Maranda Arbogast, a mom that runs the TikTok page, momma.chaos, shared a hilariously mortifying story of a time she took her three daughters grocery shopping and somehow wound up in a, "one of these things is not like the others" moment. The mom of three leads into the story by explaining that she is raising children that will likely have run ins with the law.

"Some families gotta save money for medical expenses or college funds. We gotta save money for bail because we are raising criminals, especially my middle daughter. It's always the middle child," Arbogast jokes. "She's gotta be frisked before we leave anywhere."

Keep ReadingShow less
@hannahjeanrn/TikTok

What a unique bonding experience

Period simulators gave cis-gendered men a painful glimpse of what women go through on a monthly basis. But what about going through life with an actual human growing in their belly?

That’s where the watermelon challenge comes in.

TikTok’s watermelon challenge is a simple concept, where dads-to-be strap watermelons, weighing somewhere around 14 pounds, onto their bellies in order to simulate what it’s like for pregnant moms. Bonus point for taping mangos onto the chest because #lactation.

The results are both hilarious and illuminating.

Keep ReadingShow less