(June 9, 1930 – June 10, 2018)
By Tracy Chiles McGhee
When we think of the Civil Rights Movement, names like Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis dominate the narrative. But with every act of resistance during that turbulent era, there were Black women also leading the movement.
Dorothy Cotton, an unsung architect of racial justice, embodied the period of protest and change. She taught us how to fight back with the power of our voices. She taught the language of resistance, the mechanics of organizing, and the courage to step into our own leadership.
Her legacy reminds us that the work of freedom is more than policy changes and protests. She believed in empowering the next generation to believe they are worthy of justice, dignity, and power. Changing laws and lives, in the end, is how revolutions are made and won.
The Goldsboro, North Carolina native was not a witness to history, she shaped it. As the only woman in Dr. King’s inner circle, she served as the Director of Education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Without grand speeches or headline-making arrests, she worked on the ground, traveling throughout the South, empowering Black people to claim their rights.
Cotton led the Citizenship Education Program (CEP), an initiative that taught Black people, especially those in rural communities, how to read and write so they could register to vote. Beyond literacy development,Cotton knew that if Black people were going to change the system, they had to first believe in their own power. Many of the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement sat at the table with Dorothy Cotton before they faced fire hoses, police dogs and violent white mobs. She equipped everyday people with the tools to challenge a nation, knowing that true liberation starts in the mind.
“We learned that we had, and still have, more power than we knew. The more we got involved, acted, and came together, the stronger we felt. We realized a new definition of power.”
Cotton also believed in the healing power of music. She used freedom songs to unify and uplift, turning protests into spaces of joy and resilience.
“We would sing about anything we felt. We would sing about why we sing. We would sing about the abuses we suffered, like not being allowed to vote. We would sing of sorrow and hope.”
She knew that in the midst of struggle, Black people needed more than strategy, they needed spirit.
“Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round, Turn me ’round, turn me ’round. Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round. I’m gonna keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’, Marchin’ up to freedom land.”
Despite her immense impact, Dorothy Cotton remains one of the movement’s hidden figures. At the same time, her life is a testament to what happens when Black women refuse to be silenced, when we step into our power and teach others to do the same.
