Dorothy Cotton at Cornell University

The late Dorothy Foreman Cotton (June 9, 1930 – June 10, 2018) was born on this day, June 9, 1930, in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Cotton is among the most important unsung leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, having worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and with other women whose roles in the movement have often been overlooked. As director of the Citizenship Education Program of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, she led workshops that moved thousands of Black people into civic action and organizing. She also helped to organize marches and protests against segregation, in the process suffering beatings by white supremacists. Cotton was a firm believer in the philosophy of nonviolence as a way of life that “required self-discipline, bravery, compassion, and conscience” (see Dorothy Cotton Institute website). Residing in Ithaca since 1982, on these traditional homelands of the Cayuga Nation, Cotton helped found the Dorothy Cotton Institute in 2008. She cared deeply about the current state of affairs, and how to contribute to a 21^st century movement for human rights, Black life and freedom. We at DCI share the outrage at the horrific killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others before them whose lives have been cut short by centuries of settler state-sanctioned, vigilante and structural violence. We also find great hope and inspiration in the collective movement and the solidarity and persistence being expressed by people of conscience all over the world.

We are not alone! There are many of us. As we remember Dorothy Cotton on what would have been her 90^th birthday, we share her reflection on what she learned about movement-building and organizing for freedom.

In Dorothy Cotton’s (2012) own words:

One day not long ago I felt a strong desire to revisit the Dorchester Center [in Georgia], where great, important work happened—work that helped change our country…. As I stood in the room where we gathered regularly each month for eight years, I saw and felt the energy of those times again …. I was not conscious then of the great importance of our work, that it would be studied and written about for generations to come. We had a fire in our souls and just had to do what we did. I know now that when I took other jobs I was just taking a break from what I was called to do. I was transformed forever, just as our eight thousand participants were also transformed by involvement in a people-changing, country-changing experience.

Standing in the great room at the Dorchester Center caused me to consider some specifics of what we learned there:

♦ We learned that we could make the road by walking it. We didn’t know everything up front. There was no blueprint.

♦ 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.

1973-2020Photo: Ken Ellis/Houston Chronicle staff illustration

♦ We learned that we could change patterns and structures, no matter how deeply entrenched they were.

♦ We learned that we could use our impatience and anger to empower ourselves to act for change.

♦ We learned that we could confront the powers that be from an understanding of nonviolence—satyagraha, as Mahatma Gandhi called it.

♦ We learned that we could develop whatever skills we lacked when there was work to be done.

♦ We learned that we could act from our capacities, rather than from some deficit attributed to us by others.

♦ We learned that we have government “by the people” only if we make it so, giving life to this great concept.

♦ We learned that one is not alone. If one takes some steps to bring about positive change, others will join in the action.

♦ We learned that when we are serving, giving our life and energy to something that is important to us as well as to others, life is meaningful. And that we can’t be bored giving ourselves to positive, transformative work.

♦ We learned that our freedom struggle was an idea whose time had come. As Dr. King liked to say, “The zeitgeist was upon us.” The spirit of the times unfolded with breathtaking power.

♦ We learned that when those who are victimized become committed to changing an unjust and brutal system, no longer accepting victim status, change happens. Systems that maintain patterns of injustice will have to change.

Source:  Dorothy F. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement, Atria Books, 2012, 279-84.

On Nov 15, 2018, Dr. Carson was recognized for his work on nonviolence as the Director of the King Institute.  The award is named after Jamnalal Bajaj, a major Indian industrialist and Indian Independence activist who was an adopted son of Mahatma Gandhi. The ceremony took place at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, India. Past recipients of the International Award include Dr. Mary E. King and Desmond Tutu. Dr. Carson delivered a brief speech in front of an audience that included members of Jamnalal Bajaj’s family as well as the current Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu Dr. Carson receiving his award from the Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu.   Photo Credit: Shubhangi Karkannavar Rahul Bajaj, Chairman of the Bajaj Foundation, said of the recipients of the award: “It is always a moment of pride for us to honour such individuals who have relentlessly worked towards making the world a better place. These individuals are shining examples of working selflessly and they reiterate the philosophy of Gandhian principles. They truly represent the ethos and fundamentals of the Gandhian way of life” Learn more at the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation website here. Dr. Carson is a National Advisor to the Dorothy Cotton Institute.