If Your Back's Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement
Language: English
Published by Atria Books, 2012
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.World of Books Inc
AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 9.55
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
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 back's 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 King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and directed by activist Dorothy Cotton. This program, called the best-kept secret of the twentieth-century's 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 King's 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 Back's Not Bent shows how CEP was key to the civil rights movement's success and how the lessons of the program can serve our troubled democracy now.…
Seller Inventory # CIN0743296834VG
- Title
- If Your Back's Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement
- Author
- Dorothy F Cotton
- Publisher
- Atria Books
- Publication year
- 2012
- Condition
- Very Good
- Binding
- Hardback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0743296834
- ISBN 13
- 9780743296830
If Your Backs Not Bent 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 transformedmen and women alikefrom 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. Kings inner circle of leadership, for the first time offers her account of the movement, correcting the historical impression that we only marched and sang. She shows how the CEP was key to the movements success, and how the lessons of the program can serve our democracy now. People, and therefore systems, can indeed change if your backs not bent.
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World of Books Inc
Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
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