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“Picking Cotton,” the true story of an unlikely friendship between a woman and the innocent man she sent to prison, will be the 2010 summer reading book at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

   picking cotton book cover
 
“Picking Cotton” book cover

“Picking Cotton,” the true story of an unlikely friendship between a woman and the innocent man she sent to prison, will be the 2010 summer reading book at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As part of its Summer Reading Program, UNC asks all first-year and incoming transfer students to read a book the summer before they enroll and participate in small group discussions about it the day before classes begin. Faculty and staff lead the discussions for the voluntary, non-credit assignment.

The program aims to stimulate critical thinking outside the classroom and give new students an intellectual common ground. An academic icebreaker, it encourages the students to engage with the scholarly community and come to their own conclusions.

A nine-member selection committee of students, faculty and staff began meeting last fall to consider books for the program, now in its 12th year. They chose “Picking Cotton” (St. Martin’s Press, 2009) Monday (Jan. 25) in a unanimous vote.

 ronald cotton  
 Ronald Cotton
 

The book was written by the reconciled pair, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton – both of North Carolina – with help from ghost writer Erin Torneo.

Jennifer Thompson was 22 and a college student in 1984, when an African-American man broke into her North Carolina apartment and raped her at knifepoint. Thompson, who is white, subsequently picked Cotton, then 22, out of a line-up. He went to prison on a life sentence, proclaiming his innocence.  

Eleven years later, Cotton was allowed to make use of a new technology and take a DNA test; it proved that he did not commit the crime. UNC law professor Richard Rosen was one of two lawyers who represented Cotton pro bono during this time.

   jennifer thompson

Jennifer Thompson-Cannino

Two years after his release, Cotton and Thompson-Cannino met.

“Despite what he had been through, Ronald never harbored resentment against Jennifer,” says the Web site www.indiebound.org. “When they finally decided to meet, he immediately and unreservedly forgave Jennifer for her mistake.”

Thompson-Cannino is now an activist against mistaken eyewitness identification and capital punishment.

Selection committee chair Bill Balthrop, a professor of communication studies, said that “Picking Cotton” gives a real-life profile of the inside workings of the legal system.

“The committee searched for a book that would be engaging to students and others in the University community, provide interesting discussion about several possible topics and be intellectually stimulating and challenging,” he said.

“We thought that ‘Picking Cotton’ did all of those things. It is a powerful story about sexual assault, the criminal justice system, and how two people's lives were changed forever. But it is also about faith, friendship and the power and virtue of forgiveness.  Several committee members commented upon how difficult it was to stop reading the book once they started it. They also noted how many of the issues raised in the book could be discussed from many different perspectives.”

The committee chose “Picking Cotton” from 282 different books cited in 428 nominations, submitted by students, alumni, faculty and community members. Five other books were considered as finalists: “For God and Country” by James Yee; “Gang Leader for a Day” by Sudhir Venkatesh; “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh” by Gerald Grant; “White Like Me” by Tim Wise; and “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers.

Since its 1999 inception, UNC’s summer reading program has featured the following books: “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz; “Confederates in the Attic” by Tony Horwitz; “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman; “Approaching the Qur’an” by Michael Sells; “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich; “Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point” by David Lipsky; “Blood Done Sign My Name” by Timothy B. Tyson; “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri; “The Death of the Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions” by Sister Helen Prejean; “Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights” by Kenji Yoshino; and “A Home on the Field” by Paul Cuadros.

Summer Reading Program Web site: http://www.unc.edu/srp/

“Picking Cotton” Web site: http://www.pickingcottonbook.com/about.html

Summer Reading Program contact: April Mann, (919) 360-3069, asmann@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589

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