Amelia Boynton Robinson, a civil rights activist who nearly died when she helped to lead the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march in 1965, championed for voting rights, and was the first black woman to run for Congress in Alabama, died early Wednesday at the age of 104.
Boynton Robinson was among those beaten during the voting rights march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. State troopers teargassed and clubbed the marchers as they tried to cross the bridge. A photo on the front page of a newspaper, showing Boynton Robinson, who had been beaten unconscious, drew wide attention to the movement.
Fifty years after the civil rights movement, Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, pushed her across the span in a wheelchair during a commemoration. Boynton Robinson, who had been hospitalized in July after having a major stroke, turned 104 on August 18th. Her son said she had been living in Tuskegee but was hospitalized in Montgomery.
In a written statement, Boynton Robinson's family said she was surrounded by friends and family when she passed at 2:20 a.m. "Mrs. Boynton Robinson suffered grave injustices on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma at the hands of state troopers on Bloody Sunday, yet she refused to be intimidated," Sewell said in January. "She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, my colleague Rep. John Lewis and thousands of others from Selma to Montgomery and ultimately witnessed the day when their work led to the passage of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965."
Tuskegee University officials have said Boynton Robinson graduated from their school in 1927 and recently donated much of her own personal memorabilia from the 1950s and 1960s to the university. Boynton's family has said that there are plans for events to honor her in Tuskegee and they are also arranging a ceremony at Edmund Pettis Bridge on September 8th of this year.
By Devon Pyne for RAPstation.com
Amelia Boynton Robinson, civil rights activist, dies at age 104
Amelia Boynton Robinson, a civil rights activist who nearly died when she helped to lead the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march in 1965, championed for voting rights, and was the first black woman to run for Congress in Alabama, died early Wednesday at the age of 104.
Boynton Robinson was among those beaten during the voting rights march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. State troopers teargassed and clubbed the marchers as they tried to cross the bridge. A photo on the front page of a newspaper, showing Boynton Robinson, who had been beaten unconscious, drew wide attention to the movement.
Fifty years after the civil rights movement, Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, pushed her across the span in a wheelchair during a commemoration. Boynton Robinson, who had been hospitalized in July after having a major stroke, turned 104 on August 18th. Her son said she had been living in Tuskegee but was hospitalized in Montgomery.
In a written statement, Boynton Robinson's family said she was surrounded by friends and family when she passed at 2:20 a.m. "Mrs. Boynton Robinson suffered grave injustices on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma at the hands of state troopers on Bloody Sunday, yet she refused to be intimidated," Sewell said in January. "She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, my colleague Rep. John Lewis and thousands of others from Selma to Montgomery and ultimately witnessed the day when their work led to the passage of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965."
Tuskegee University officials have said Boynton Robinson graduated from their school in 1927 and recently donated much of her own personal memorabilia from the 1950s and 1960s to the university. Boynton's family has said that there are plans for events to honor her in Tuskegee and they are also arranging a ceremony at Edmund Pettis Bridge on September 8th of this year.
By Devon Pyne for RAPstation.com
