Dorothy Cotton

Dorothy Cotton (June 9, 1930 – June 10, 2018) was an American civil rights activist, who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and a member of the inner circle of one of its main organizations, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (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, on June 9, 1930, as Dorothy Lee Foreman. Her mother, Maggie Pelham Foreman, died when she was 3 years old. Life was a daily struggle in their southern segregated rural town. Cotton's father would frequently beat Cotton and her three sisters. 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 at Virginia State University, Cotton went along and worked as his housekeeper. Cotton described her job at the residence as "part daughter, part housekeeper" Not long after she got involved, Martin Luther King Jr. 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 to help King form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 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. 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 and Esau Jenkins, via both the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, created a grassroots movement in rural southern areas during the violent and tense Civil Rights Era of the 1960s. Esau Jenkins 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.

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 pass literacy tests for voting." These programs also covered 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.

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. While living in Ithaca, she developed a close relationship with her community and her work as an activist and educator continued; in 2008, the Dorothy Cotton Institute was founded. The organization's mission is to: "develop, nurture and train leaders for a global human rights movement; build a network and community of civil and human rights leadership; and explore, share and promote practices that transform individuals and communities, opening new pathways to peace, justice and healing."

Legacy and impact The Ithaca, New York-based 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.