Dorothy Cotton(1930-2018)

She was an important figure in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; she led a program that educated thousands of African Americans on their basic rights of citizenship. Along with Septima Clark and Andrew Young, she led five-day workshops in which African Americans studied the U.S. Constitution and African American history, and learned how to read a voting ballot and organize credit unions.

This was about the roughest city we've had -- 45 straight nights of beatings and intimidation. In church every night we'd see people sitting there with bandages on. Some would sit with shotguns between their legs ...We sang before every night we went out to get up our courage ... After we were attacked we'd come back to the church, and somehow always we'd come back bleeding, and singing. [describing the 1964 protests against segregation in St. Augustine, Florida]