Mississippi’s Black Cotton

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.

John Obee (Author)
JOHN OBEE served in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1960’s. He later worked at the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, during which time he obtained his law degree. He clerked for the Honorable Blair Moody, Jr. of the Michigan Supreme Court. For the last 30+ years, he has specialized in the litigation of Housing Discrimination cases. He was an Adjunct Professor of Law (Housing Discrimination Law) at Michigan State College of Law and has lectured nationally and internationally on discrimination issues.

MacArthur Cotton (Author)
MacARTHUR COTTON was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi from 1961 through 1966. He later served as chairman of the Attala County NAACP and the Attala County Democratic Party. He lives in Kosciusko, Mississippi.