Connecting With a Legend : Black history: Through a national satellite conference, local women reach out to civil rights leader Dorothy I. Height.

Sandra Osborne leaned over a desk at the front of a Cal State Northridge classroom Sunday, intently jabbing the numbers on a telephone over and over again.

On the 14th redial, her arms shot up in victory, a signal to the others grouped around her that she had connected with an auditorium in Tennessee, where civil rights leader Dorothy I. Height was fielding questions from across the nation.

“Oh my God. Oh my goodness,” Osborne said after she hung up. “It meant so much to me to talk to Dr. Height.

“It was like talking to a grandmother with wisdom. It was like a dream to hear her voice on the other end of the line.”

The national satellite conference featuring Height was broadcast to 3 million people to celebrate Black History Month. The event, which originated from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, was sponsored by the National Council of Negro Women in association with the Black College Satellite Network.

Members of the council’s San Fernando Valley section and other interested participants gathered in front of two television monitors in the Northridge classroom to listen to Height, president of the council since 1957.

During the two-hour teleconference, Height reminisced about her friendships with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the council. Fielding questions, she spoke about civil rights and women’s issues, the importance of education and the need to push toward common goals.

“You have to deal with racism,” she said. “You have to deal with sexism. We have to work to advance the cause of women.”

She also urged that African-Americans remember that “we are descendants of African kings and queens who were made slaves.”

“That’s why Black History Month is so important,” she said. “But I think in our country, we need black history every day.”

Throughout the teleconference, members of the Northridge audience laughed and applauded, often murmuring in agreement.

Osborne--who asked Height how to best pass on the momentum of previous leaders--said the most important message she picked up from the program was Height’s push to get to know people who are different. But the lessons provided by Height’s speech were slightly different for each of the nine black and white women who gathered in the small room.

For Tyree Wieder of Chatsworth, it was an opportunity to hear “one of the star attraction African-American females in the country.”

For two college students pursuing degrees to become school psychologists, it was a chance to learn the views of women from a different culture.

For Sharon Ashford of Van Nuys, it was a gift of listening to a living legend.

“It’s real important to me as a mom and wife to be able to pass down . . . history to my family to give them a good foundation,” said Ashford, 31. “It’s real inspiring to have an African-American in leadership showing the values you want to live with.”