Katie Dorsett was the first Black woman elected to the Greensboro City Council. She won two terms in the mid-1980s, then moved on to the Guilford County Commission, where she served until 1993.

After working for a time in Gov. Jim Hunt's administration, Dorsett got back on the campaign trail, winning a state senate seat and becoming a Democratic majority whip. She decided not to seek re-election in 2010, opening the door for Gladys Robinson, who still holds the office.

Politics was a mid-life move for Dorsett. Long before she joined the city council, Dorsett had built a career in education.

A native of the Mississippi Delta, Dorsett came to Greensboro in 1955 to work at North Carolina A&T University in the School of Business and Economics. It was there that she met her husband, Warren. She later earned a doctorate in education from UNCG.

Dorsett had two children. She founded a local sickle-cell anemia foundation after her son, Warren Jr., died of the disease. 

Dorsett was 87 years old.