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Civil Rights icon Dorothy Height died today at the age of 98, according to media reports. President Barack Obama called Height “the godmother of the civil rights movement” and a hero to many Americans.”

In a statement, Obama said Height was the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement and witnessed “every march and milestone along the way,” according to media reports.

Height led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s to protest lynching. She was a winner of the Congressional Gold Medal and the only woman on the stage when King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963, according to USA Today story.

Heights talked with USA Today before Obama’s inauguration.

Obama said in a statement that he and his wife, Michelle, were deeply saddened by the news.