Synopses & Reviews
and#8220;Nobody can ride your back if your backand#8217;s not bent,and#8221; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said at the end of a Citizenship Education Program (CEP), an adult grassroots training program directed by Dorothy Cotton. This program, called the best-kept secret of the twentieth centuryand#8217;s civil rights movement, was critical in preparing legions of disenfranchised people across the South to work with existing systems of local government to gain access to services and resources they were entitled to as citizens. They learned to demonstrate peacefully against injustice, even when they were met with violence and hatred. The CEP was born out of the work of the Tennessee Highlander Folk School and was fully developed and expanded by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by Dr. King until that fateful day in Memphis in April 1968. Cotton was checked into the Lorraine Motel at that time as well, but sheand#8217;d left to do the work of the CEP before the assassinand#8217;s bullet was fired. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;If Your Backand#8217;s Not Bent andlt;/Iandgt;recounts the accomplishments and the drama of this training that was largely ignored by the media, which had focused its attention on marches and demonstrations. This book describes who participated and how they were transformedand#8212;men and women alikeand#8212;from victims to active citizens, and how they transformed their communities and ultimately the country into a place of greater freedom and justice for all. Cotton, the only woman in Dr. Kingand#8217;s inner circle of leadership, for the first time offers her account of the movement, correcting the historical impression that and#8220;we only marched and sang.and#8221; She shows how the CEP was key to the movementand#8217;s success, and how the lessons of the program can serve our democracy now. People, and therefore systems, can indeed change and#8220;if your backand#8217;s not bent.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Dorothy Cotton is an inspiration to so many male and female leaders in the modern civil rights movement. Her time at the helm of the Citizenship Education Program remains a textbook example of successful grassroots organizing. We should all pay close attention to her story.and#8221;andlt;Iandgt; and#8211;andlt;/Iandgt;Ben Jealous, NAACP President and CEO
Review
The Citizenship Program of SCLC is the best kept secret of the Civil Rights Movement. Dortothy Cotton was the engine that made it move to become a crucial part of the movement. It produced Fannie Lou Hamer and dozens like her and empowered them all across the deep South to produce an authentic grass roots revolution.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; This book tells the story that most chroniclers have missed because of their penchant for sensationalism and not actual historical facts that can be supported by intentional research.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; Hundreds were trained at the Dorchester Center in south Georgia which made them the backbone of the Civil Rights Movement.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; Though unheralded, Dorothy Cotton was as crucial to the Movement as was King, Abernathy and Shuttlesworth in her dogged preparation of the and#8220;troops.and#8221; andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Pastor Emeritus of Harlemand#8217;s Canaan Baptist Church of Christ
Review
Dorothy Cotton has given us the story of the heart and lungs of the Freedom Struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Millions in the present generation do not know that the Freedom Struggle had a life-long learning curriculum. Dorothy was the director of this academyand#8212;the Citizenship Education Program which had hundreds of graduates. One of the most famous and honored graduates of the above program was Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer from Ruleville, Mississippi. She was both pupil and prophet who then went on to change the world in her time and space. Every generation should know this story and be blessed and empowered by it.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., Pastor Emeritus of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
Review
"Dorothy F. Cotton's book, andlt;iandgt;If Your Back's Not Bentandlt;/iandgt;, is a distinct reminder that women have been endlessly omitted from the written histories of civil rights movements. Moreover, Ms. Cotton pays tribute to numerous, unfamed, brave people whose work supported the great leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King...and, collectively, they shared a collective quest to end the denial of human rights." and#8211; Camille Cosby
Review
andlt;iandgt;and#8220;If Your Backand#8217;s Not Bentandlt;/iandgt; is more than the compelling story of a motherless child who grew up in a shotgun shack on an unpaved road in Goldsboro, N.C. to become the lone female in Dr. Martin Luther Kingand#8217;s inner leadership circle. Itand#8217;s the story of how people such as Dorothy Cotton and those she trained became what the civil rights movement needed them to be. Cottonand#8217;s Citizenship Education program taught ordinary people how to interpret the Constitution, set goals, run meetings, plan marches, practice nonviolence andand#8212;most importantly--realize they could change both themselves and America.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;Betty DeRamus, author of andlt;iandgt;Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroadandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;Freedom by Any Meansandlt;/iandgt;
Review
and#8220;Dorothy Cottonand#8217;s superb book, with its vision of the Beloved Community, is a vivid reminder that the 1960s civil rights Movement was one brilliant moment in the long American journey to democracy. Read it, be inspired, and act.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;Joan Steinau Lester, award-winning author of andlt;iandgt;Black, White, Otherandlt;/iandgt;
Review
and#8220;This history of the Civil Rights Movement would not be complete without the experiences and insights of Dorothy F. Cotton, who provides a much-needed female perspective on life on the front lines with Martin Luther King. Jr. Her lessons on citizenship and shedding notions of "victimhood" resound with relevance today, giving us a vibrant blueprint for the future.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;Tananarive Due, American Book Award winner, co-author of andlt;iandgt;Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rightsandlt;/iandgt;
Synopsis
The only female in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s inner circle of leadership, for the first time, offers her account of the Civil Rights Movement and what it means to us now.
Dorothy Cotton, recently honored with a Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum, is the former director for the Southern Christian Leader Conference's Citizens Education Project. Ms. Cotton was at the front lines in the fight for civil rights. In If Your Back's Not Bent she shares an up-close and personal account of those turbulent times, as no one else can.
Born into poverty in North Carolina, she survived deprivation and racism by seeking solace in books and spirituality, worked her way through college, earned a master's degree, and married. But something was missing. She found it through her work with the Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then a charismatic young preacher. She became a member the his Executive Committee for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, training and organizing men and women across the South to participate in nonviolent demonstrations, including the fateful 1963 Birmingham campaign. After King's death, she continued her work as an activist, serving as vice president of field operations for the King Center for Nonviolent Change. Today she speaks around the world, from Africa to China, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the BBC, PBS' American Experience, and many more. If Your Back's Not Bent is the first published account of how her work and the CEP were fundamental to the success of the Civil Rights Movement.
Synopsis
An unsung hero of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s inner circle reveals the true story behind the Citizenship Education Program—a little-known training program for disenfranchised citizens—reflecting on its huge importance to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and explaining its indisputable relevance to our nation today.
“Nobody can ride your back if your backs not bent,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously proclaimed at the end of a Citizenship Education Program (CEP), an adult grassroots training program born of the work of the Tennessee Highlander Folk School, expanded by Kings Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and directed by activist Dorothy Cotton. This program, called the best-kept secret of the twentieth-centurys civil rights movement, was critical in preparing legions of disenfranchised citizens across the South to work with existing systems of local government to gain access to resources they were entitled to and to demonstrate peaceably against injustice, even in the face of violence and hatred.
For the first time, Cotton, the only woman in Kings inner circle, offers her account of this important project, which the media, focused at the time on marches and demonstrations, largely ignored. Cotton reveals the significant accomplishments and the drama of the CEP training and describes how the program transformed its participants, inspiring them, in turn, to transform their communities, and ultimately the country as a whole, into a place of greater freedom and justice for all. A timely account of fighting inequality, If Your Backs Not Bent shows how CEP was key to the civil rights movements success and how the lessons of the program can serve our troubled democracy now.
About the Author
Dorothy Cotton is lifelong civil rights activist who was the highest ranking woman in the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC). She is a speaker, singer, peacemaker, and visionary dedicated to social justice. She lives in Ithaca, New York.