Flags to be flown at half-staff for Height

American flags will be flown at half-staff at the White House and other federal buildings throughout the country Thursday, in memory of civil rights icon Dorothy Height.

President Obama issued the declaration late Monday, in advance of Height's funeral Thursday. The American flag also will be flown at half-staff that day at all U.S. embassies.

Height, who was 98 when she died last week, directed the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. The service on Thursday will be held at Washington National Cathedral. She is known for helping to push civil rights into the national spotlight in the 1950s and '60s, and she witnessed many of its milestones over six decades.

Read the proclamation here.