[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 102 (Tuesday, June 19, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E859-E860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF DOROTHY COTTON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 19, 2018

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Dorothy 
Cotton, a great American and unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement, 
who dedicated her life in service to this country by working to 
eliminate the vestiges of Jim Crow segregation which paved the way for 
the freedoms and liberties all Americans enjoy today.
  As a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) 
family, I am heartbroken to learn of her death.
  Dorothy Cotton was like a mother figure to the young women in the 
movement; we yearned to be like her, someone who not only had a seat at 
the table but a voice.
  A voice that advised the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during 
times of challenge and crisis.
  A voice that challenged the patriarchal treatment of women within the 
movement by serving as the only woman aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr.

[[Page E860]]

  A voice that oversaw the citizen education workshops that empowered 
disenfranchised African-Americans to register to vote.
  Born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, this tireless civil rights 
activist who proclaimed that the Civil Rights Movement was her life, 
was described as a warm presence who sang spirituals to ease tensions 
at demonstrations.
  Educated at Shaw University, Virginia State College, and Boston 
University, Dorothy Cotton began engaging in activism at the Gillfield 
Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia where Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, also 
head of the local chapter of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People, was pastor.
  There she began to organize protests against segregation in the local 
public library and at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth.
  Shortly after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the church, he 
requested that Dr. Walker join him at the Southern Christian Leadership 
Conference (SCLC) and Dorothy Cotton followed.
  At the SCLC, she served as an Administrative Assistant to Rev. 
Walker, quickly ascending to directing citizen education workshops to 
empower disenfranchised African-Americans to register to vote.
  She recruited people, from pool halls to churches, to demand and 
exercise their voting-rights.
  At the workshops, thousands of participants learned citizenship 
rights, black history, economic opportunity and organizing credit 
unions.
  With that knowledge, they went back to their communities educating 
other African-Americans on the importance of political power and to 
help them register to vote, even teaching them how to pass literacy 
tests.
  In addition, she trained children to participate in demonstrations 
which became known as the Children's Crusade, organized night marches 
against segregation in St. Augustine, Florida, and brought children to 
the local public beach to protest a whites-only policy.
  She regularly traveled with Dr. King, typing his famous I Have a 
Dream Speech, going with him to Oslo, Norway to receive the Nobel Peace 
Prize, and staying in a Memphis, Tennessee motel room next to his until 
hours before his assassination in 1968.
  Dorothy Cotton remained active in civil rights and education after 
leaving the SCLC, moving to Ithaca, New York in 1982 to be Director of 
Student Activities at Cornell University.
  She worked with students to demand that Cornell University divest its 
financial ties to South Africa to protest the country's apartheid 
policies.
  After retiring from the university, the Center for Transformative 
Action started the Dorothy Cotton Institute to advance global human 
rights in her honor.
  In addition, the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers was established to 
help preserve the spirituals she sung.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in celebrating Dorothy 
Cotton's life and legacy.
  America is a better place because of Ms. Cotton and her service.
  I ask the House to observe a moment of silence in memory of Dorothy 
Cotton.

                          ____________________