Civil Rights heroine Dr. Amelia Boynton Robinson passes away at age 104

Dr. Amelia Boynton Robinson (Photo used with permission of Dr. Boynton Robinson's family) — Dr. Amelia Boynton Robinson (Photo used with permission of Dr. Boynton Robinson’s family)

A pioneer in the Civil Rights movement, Amelia Boynton Robinson, died Wednesday at the age of 104, (1911-2015).

Earlier this year Dr. Boynton Robinson suffered a stroke had been hospitalized at Nolan Hospital in Montgomery since July 10.

A victim of the brutal beatings on “Bloody Sunday” while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma fifty years ago, Boynton Robinson is also known for her contributions to the voting rights movements. Her home was used as a field office for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders amidst the voter drives in Selma during the 1960s.

Boynton Robinson ran for Congress in 1964, and though she was unsuccessful her candidacy made her the first African American and first woman to run. In 1990 Boynton was honored for her contributions to the civil rights movement with the Martin Luther King Jr. Medal of Freedom.

A 1927 graduate of the then-Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, she was depicted in the movie Selma by actress Lorraine Toussaint, and when her health precluded her from attending a screening of the film, Paramount Pictures arranged to host a private viewing in her home with some of her closest friends and fellow veterans of the movement. At the conclusion of the film the whole room was emotional, and Boyton Robinson—who has been critical of previous depictions of her place in the civil rights fight—proclaimed “It was good, the movie is fantastic.”

Dr. Boynton Robinson made headlines in January when she stole the show at the State of the Union Address in Washington, D.C. by telling former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, “People always talk about, ‘I stand on the shoulders of people like you.’ Get off my shoulders, do your own work.”

Dr. Boynton Robinson attended the event as a guest of Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL7).

Congresswoman Sewell expressed her condolences in a statement Wednesday.

“Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson will not only be remembered for her invaluable contributions as a matriarch of the voting rights movement but she was also the first black woman from the State of Alabama to run for Congress. Without her courageous campaign for the 7th Congressional District, I know that my election to this seat in 2010 would not have been possible. Her sacrifices paved the way for me to walk the halls of Congress and I will carry my love and admiration for her in my heart each and every day.”

According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Boynton was born in Savannah, Georgia. In Georgia she worked as an educator and in Selma, AL she worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture teaching local residents how to grow food and about nutritional health care.

Even towards the very end of her life she remained a constant symbol and advocate of the civil rights movement. Bruce Boynton, her son, says this about his mother’s legacy, “The truth of it is that was her entire life.” He continued saying, “She was a loving person, very supportive — but civil rights was her life.”