Civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height, who marched against lynching in the 1920s and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, died early this morning at age 98.

Height was “the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement and a hero to so many Americans,” President Obama said in a statement.

The four-decade president of the National Council of Negro Women and a winner of the Congressional Gold Medal, Height was the only woman on the stage when King delivered his I Have A Dream speech in 1963.

Height also dealt with presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama. This link includes a USA TODAY interview with Height on the eve of Obama’s inauguration as the nation’s first African-American president.

In his statement, Obama noted that a college once denied entry to Height because it has already met its quota of two African-American women. “Dr. Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality,” the president said, and witnessed “every march and milestone along the way.”

Throughout her long life, Height liked to quote the advice of abolitionist Frederick Douglass on how to best promote justice: “Agitate, agitate, agitate.”

Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Dorothy Height the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement and a hero to so many Americans. Ever since she was denied entrance to college because the incoming class had already met its quota of two African American women, Dr. Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality. She led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, and served as the only woman at the highest level of the Civil Rights Movement witnessing every march and milestone along the way. And even in the final weeks of her life a time when anyone else would have enjoyed their well-earned rest Dr. Height continued her fight to make our nation a more open and inclusive place for people of every race, gender, background and faith. Michelle and I offer our condolences to all those who knew and loved Dr. Height and all those whose lives she touched.