Dorothy Cotton (June 9, 1930 – June 10, 2018) was an American
civil rights activist
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
, who was a leader in the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
in the United States
and a member of the inner-circle of one of its main organizations, the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
(SCLC). As the SCLC's Educational Director, she was arguably the highest ranked female member of the organization.
Early life and education
Cotton was born in
Goldsboro, North Carolina
Goldsboro, originally Goldsborough, is a city and the county seat of Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 33,657 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Goldsboro, North Carolina Metropol ...
, on June 9, 1930, as Dorothy Lee Foreman.
Her mother, Maggie Pelham Foreman, died when she was 3 years old.
That left her and her three sisters to be raised by their father, Claude Foreman, a tobacco factory and steel mill worker,
with only a third-grade education.
Life was a daily struggle in their southern segregated rural town.
[Oral Histories, Civil Rights History Project: Dorothy Cotton, Civil Rights Activist, UNC Chapel Hill, July 25, 2011.] Cotton's father would frequently beat Cotton and her three sisters.
Cotton said, "I recall nothing nurturing in my home environment".
When Cotton was in high school she met Rosa Gray, an English teacher who positively changed her life and encouraged her to be successful and strong. Gray, being the director of the annual school play, often cast her in the lead, which Foreman said made her feel "such a connection to her".
Gray helped secure a place for Cotton at
Shaw University, where she studied English, as well as securing two part-time jobs for her on campus, one in the school cafeteria and the other cleaning the teacher's dormitory. When Dr. Daniel, a teacher at Shaw, was offered the Presidency job at
Virginia State University
Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of hi ...
, Cotton went along and worked as his housekeeper. Cotton described her job in the residence as "part daughter, part housekeeper"
While at Virginia State, she met a man by the name of Horace Sims, a student in a
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
an class with her, who introduced her to George Cotton. George Cotton was not a student at Virginia State. Dorothy married George in the President's home just after graduating. She then pursued and earned a master's degree in Speech Therapy from
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
in 1960. It was in
Petersburg that Cotton, got involved in a local church led by
Wyatt T. Walker. It was here that her Civil Rights activism would begin.
Civil rights activism
In an interview done by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
,
Cotton recounts an instance when she was outside and a white boy rode his bike by and sang, "deep down in the heart of niggertown."
She recounts the experience and says that this made her angry and she never forgot it, having given her "a consciousness about the wrongness of the system"
This would set up her mentality as she began her journey working with the Civil Rights Movement.
Whilst she was attending Virginia State University, she got involved with a local church led by Wyatt T. Walker, the regional head for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
. She says that she felt drawn to the church because of its involvement in the movement.
Walker asked Cotton if she would be willing to help organizing and training children for picketing campaigns. Her job was to teach them how to correctly picket and march for the movement. "She helped Walker protest segregation at the library and at the lunch counter and she taught direct-action tactics to students." Not long after she got involved,
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
was invited to the church to speak. The program for the evening included both King and Cotton. Cotton read a piece of poetry and King took an interest and later had a conversation with Cotton. While in
Petersburg, King asked Walker if he would move to
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
to help King form the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
. Walker said that he would only go if he could bring two of his closest associates. Those two associates were Jim Wood and Dorothy Cotton. Cotton made the decision to go but to stay for only three months. She ended up staying for 23 years. In those years, she made immense contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
When Cotton first arrived in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, she was Walker's Administrative Assistant. Not long after, King recruited her to help out at
Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West (e ...
, a school that was receiving much bad publicity. At Highlander, Cotton met
Septima Clark
Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, 1898 – December 15, 1987) was an African American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and ...
with whom she would work on the Citizenship Education Program.
Cotton's involvement with the movement dominated her life. That was so due to her feeling of obligation. In her autobiography, Cotton wrote, "our work with SCLC was not just a job, it was a life commitment." Perhaps her biggest achievement in the movement was the Citizenship Education Program: a program meant to help blacks register to vote.
Citizenship Education Program
Cotton's close work with
Septima Clark
Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, 1898 – December 15, 1987) was an African American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and ...
and
Esau Jenkins
Esau Jenkins (July 3, 1910 – October 30, 1972) was a South Carolina African-American Human Rights leader, businessman, local preacher, and community organizer. He was the founder and leader of many organizations and institutions which helped imp ...
, via both the
Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West (e ...
in Tennessee and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
, created a grassroots movement in rural southern areas during the violent and tense Civil Rights Era of the 1960s.
Esau Jenkins
Esau Jenkins (July 3, 1910 – October 30, 1972) was a South Carolina African-American Human Rights leader, businessman, local preacher, and community organizer. He was the founder and leader of many organizations and institutions which helped imp ...
was an early participant in the formation of the Program. As an independent businessman with "a third grade education but a PhD mind", Jenkins drove a private bus to the mainland from the coastal Islands of South Carolina, taking island locals to and from their day jobs.
During these rides, Esau would start conversations with his passengers about the power and importance of their individual right to vote. Esau recognized a dire need for educational programs aimed at bringing awareness to political and civil rights in an effort to spark African-American communities into action for change. These informal conversations were imperative to forming the base of initial participants in the Citizenship Education Program.
The Citizenship Education Program predominately focused on teaching voter registration requirements as well as community and individual empowerment. Most Southern states had created voting registration laws designed around literacy exercises specifically to disqualify potential African-American voters. Such requirements to register to vote included having the ability to recite random parts of the constitution as well as signing one's name in cursive writing. Many of those imposing these prerequisites on blacks were themselves illiterate, rendering the process unreliable and subjective; many blacks were turned away. The program sought to reinforce in them an awareness that their voting right was inviolable. The program also taught dealing with basic everyday needs, as well. Another hope for the program was to create a wave of education that would spread throughout the local communities, with the community members themselves as the teachers.
The hope for the education program was that it would spread to other communities and that these programs and schools would be set up in other communities throughout the south and, ultimately, the entire United States. In a brochure for the program the goal is clearly stated: "Their immediate program is teaching reading and writing. They help students to pass literacy tests for voting." These programs also provided the cost of tuition, training, and even the cost of travelling to the training center itself. With its commitment the Citizenship Education Program would help many blacks register over the next few years. The Citizenship Education Program had a profound impact on the movement with well over 6,000 men and women participating in workshops and classes.
Cotton helped
James Bevel
James Luther Bevel (October 19, 1936 – December 19, 2008) was a minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States. As a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and then as its Director of Direct ...
organize the students during the
Birmingham campaign
The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...
and its
Children's Crusade, and conducted citizenship classes throughout the South during the era. She also accompanied
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
, the co-founder and first president of the SCLC, on his trip to
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
to receive the 1964
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
.
An in-depth interview with Cotton was done by the Oral Histories of the Civil Rights History Project, conducted through the University of North Carolina.
Legacy and impact
The musical group, the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers sings in Cotton's honor. She was a gifted singer, and often led spirituals at rallies and in classes. The group seeks to "preserve the uniquely American art form of the formal concert style 'Negro Spiritual.'"
Death
Dorothy Cotton died on June 10, 2018, a day after her 88th birthday.
See also
*
List of civil rights leaders
Civil rights leaders are influential figures in the promotion and implementation of political freedom and the expansion of personal civil liberties and rights. They work to protect individuals and groups from political repressio ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotton, Dorothy
1930 births
2018 deaths
People from Ithaca, New York
People from Goldsboro, North Carolina
Shaw University alumni
Virginia State University alumni
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from New York (state)
Activists from North Carolina
Nonviolence advocates
African-American activists
Cornell University staff
21st-century American women