Curators have worked for more than three years to catalog roughly 1,000 boxes of historic documents that tell the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an early civil rights group first presided over by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
One person who shows up in several of the photographs in the exhibit is Dorothy Cotton, who was head of the SCLC's Citizens Education Program beginning in the 1960s. Cotton, now in her 70s, trained thousands of mostly Southern blacks on how to organize their communities, increase voter registration and stand up for their constitutional rights.
Cotton is still passionate about the movement, and walking through the gallery at Emory's Woodruff library she recognizes early images of civil rights leaders and foot soldiers: Andrew Young, Joseph Lowery, James Orange, Rosa Parks and many unnamed faces who participated in SCLC campaigns. She says many don't understand what went on behind the demonstrations.
