Dorothy Cotton was born in 1930 in North Carolina and attended Shaw University, supporting herself by working as a housekeeper to the university president. While completing her master's degree in speech therapy in 1960, she became involved in the civil rights movement. For 12 years, she served as the Education Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., running the Citizenship Education Program to train people on voter registration, nonviolent protest, and political participation. She continued her work with SCLC after Dr. King's assassination in 1968 and was recognized for her lifetime contributions to the civil rights movement.