The literature of the civil rights movement is replete with stories about the major actors in the movement, including, for example, Martin Luther King, but there is little focus on the MacArthur Cottons of the era: the young Black men and women who at great risk to their physical and mental health chose to become involved in the movement when so many others chose not to. Without these young Black people there would have been no movement, and what was accomplished with the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s would never have happened.
This was particularly true in Mississippi, the most repressive of all fifty states, and one that had sponsored state terrorism to ensure that white supremacy reigned supreme. Despite having no real reason to believe that change could happen, MacArthur Cotton and those like him believed that they had to act. In MacArthur's case, his actions were in the tradition of his activist family, and he relates his involvement with many of the important figures in the Mississippi movement, such as Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer.
Importantly, he also honors others like him, who are largely unknown to history, such as the Greenes and McGees in Greenwood, who were waging their own war against their oppressive state. While having been imprisoned many times and having lived in a constant state of terror, Cotton persisted as a foot soldier in a war and, as with all veterans of wars, was left with emotional and psychological scars. Despite the toll that it took on him as a person, however, he remains a committed activist to this day.
"Far too often, the history of the modern civil rights movement is told through 'savior narrative' myths: 'Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, and now everyone is free.' It's a story meant to anesthetize and turn our attention away from continuing systemic injustices, fueled by white supremacy and racism. Mac Cotton's life, captured so powerfully in this moving memoir, shows us the 'everydayness' of r
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
"This is a very detailed memoir of an African American family's activism-across Jim Crow and segregation, through the twentieth-century's civil rights movements and its aftermath-that intersects closely with books about the movement. The author also exposes readers to current themes in civil rights scholarship with an emphasis on how African Americans in segregated communities resisted racism in w
Barbara McCaskill
"Douglas MacArthur Cotton has come late to the genre of memoir. Fortunately for all Americans, he came early to the cause of civil rights in his home state of Mississippi. His behind-the-scenes look at how the movement moved reveals the fragile coalitions and constant contingencies that changed the South-and then the country."
Davis W. Houck , Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies, Florida State Universit
