Amelia Boynton Robinson
Encyclopedia
Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson (born August 18, 1911) was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama
. A key figure in the 1965 march that became known as Bloody Sunday
, she later became vice-president of the Schiller Institute
affiliated with Lyndon LaRouche
. She was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal in 1990.
, Robinson became involved as a young woman in campaigning for women's suffrage
. She and her husband, Bill Boynton, knew George Washington Carver
at the Tuskegee Institute. In 1934 she registered to vote, a privilege which later became a right. A few years later she wrote a play, Through the Years, which told the story of creation of Spiritual music
, in order to help fund a community center in Selma
, Alabama
. The Robinsons met Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King
in 1954 at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
in Montgomery, Alabama, where King was the pastor.
In 1963, Bill Boynton died and Robinson's home and office in Selma became the center of Selma's civil rights battles and was used by Marin Luther King and his associates to plan demonstrations for civil and voting rights. While Selma had a population that was 50 percent black, only 1 percent of the town's African American residents were registered as voters. To protest this state of affairs, Robinson organized a march to Montgomery that took place on March 7, 1965; led by John Lewis, Hosea Williams
and Bob Mants, it included Rosa Parks
among the marchers. The event became known as Bloody Sunday
when local and state police stopped the march, beating demonstrators as they were crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge
. Robinson herself was beaten unconscious; a picture of her lying on Edmund Pettus Bridge went around the world. Another short march led by Martin Luther King took place two days later, and a third march reached Montgomery on March 24. The horror of Bloody Sunday contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act
of 1965; Robinson was a guest of honor when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.
Robinson ran for the Congress
from Alabama in 1964, the first female African-American ever to do so and the first female of any race to run for the ticket of the Democratic Party
in Alabama. She received 10% of the vote.
Robinson was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal in 1990. Bridge Across Jordan includes tributes from friends and colleagues, including Coretta Scott King
and Andrew Young
. Mrs. King wrote:
in 1983 and a year later served as a founding board member of the LaRouche-affiliated Schiller Institute
. In 1992, proclamations of "Amelia Boynton Robinson Day" in Seattle and Washington State were rescinded when officials learnt of Robinson's involvement in the Schiller Institute, the first time such an action had been taken. A spokesman for the Seattle mayor said, "It was a very difficult decision. The mayor has a lot of respect for her courage during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but we don't feel her handlers gave us full and accurate information about her current activities. Officials said they had not been aware of the Schiller Institute's affiliation with LaRouche. Robinson commented in an interview, "I have had worse things than that done to me when I was fighting for people's right to vote. I have been called rabble-rouser, agitator. But because of my fighting, I was able to hand to the entire country the right for people to vote. To give me an honor and rescind it because I am fighting for justice and for a man who has an economic program that will help the poor and the oppressed ... if that is the reason, then I think they did more good than they did harm." According to the Lewiston Morning Tribune, she stated that "people get the wrong image of LaRouche because government leaders are spreading lies about him."
In 2004 Robinson sued The Walt Disney Company
for defamation, asking for between $1 and $10 million in damages. She contended that the 1999 TV movie Selma, Lord, Selma
, a docudrama
based on a book written by two young participants in Bloody Sunday, falsely depicted her as a stereotypical "black Mammy" whose key role was to "make religious utterances and to participate in singing spirituals and protest songs." She lost the case.
During the fall of 2007, Robinson toured Sweden
, Denmark
, Germany
, France
and Italy
in her capacity as Vice President of the Schiller Institute
, and spoke with European youth about her support for LaRouche, Martin Luther King, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as the continuing problem of racism in the United States
, which she said was illustrated by the recent events in Jena, Louisiana
.
In 2010, plans were publicized for her former house on Lapsley Street, Selma, to be restored; the Atlanta-based Gateway Educational Foundation estimated it would spend $700,000 on the project, which would include a statue of Sam and Amelia Boynton. In February 2011, aged 99, she returned to her hometown Savannah, to address students at Savannah State University
.
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
. A key figure in the 1965 march that became known as Bloody Sunday
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
, she later became vice-president of the Schiller Institute
Schiller Institute
The Schiller Institute is an international political and economic thinktank, one of the primary organizations of the LaRouche movement, with headquarters in Germany and the United States, and supporters in Australia, Canada, Russia, and South America, among others, according to its website.The...
affiliated with Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
. She was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal in 1990.
Civil rights movement
Born in Savannah, GeorgiaSavannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, Robinson became involved as a young woman in campaigning for women's suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
. She and her husband, Bill Boynton, knew George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver , was an American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born into slavery in Missouri in January 1864....
at the Tuskegee Institute. In 1934 she registered to vote, a privilege which later became a right. A few years later she wrote a play, Through the Years, which told the story of creation of Spiritual music
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
, in order to help fund a community center in Selma
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. The Robinsons met Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
in 1954 at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. The church was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1974. In 1978 the official name was changed to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who helped to organize the...
in Montgomery, Alabama, where King was the pastor.
In 1963, Bill Boynton died and Robinson's home and office in Selma became the center of Selma's civil rights battles and was used by Marin Luther King and his associates to plan demonstrations for civil and voting rights. While Selma had a population that was 50 percent black, only 1 percent of the town's African American residents were registered as voters. To protest this state of affairs, Robinson organized a march to Montgomery that took place on March 7, 1965; led by John Lewis, Hosea Williams
Hosea Williams
Hosea Lorenzo Williams was a United States civil rights leader, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist and politician...
and Bob Mants, it included Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
among the marchers. The event became known as Bloody Sunday
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
when local and state police stopped the march, beating demonstrators as they were crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge
Edmund Pettus Bridge
The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a bridge that carries U.S. Highway 80 across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general and U.S. Senator from Alabama. The bridge is a steel through arch bridge with a central span of...
. Robinson herself was beaten unconscious; a picture of her lying on Edmund Pettus Bridge went around the world. Another short march led by Martin Luther King took place two days later, and a third march reached Montgomery on March 24. The horror of Bloody Sunday contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
of 1965; Robinson was a guest of honor when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.
Robinson ran for the Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
from Alabama in 1964, the first female African-American ever to do so and the first female of any race to run for the ticket of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in Alabama. She received 10% of the vote.
Robinson was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal in 1990. Bridge Across Jordan includes tributes from friends and colleagues, including Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
and Andrew Young
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
. Mrs. King wrote:
In Bridge Across Jordan, Amelia Boynton Robinson has crafted an inspiring, eloquent memoir of her more than five decades on the front lines of the struggle for racial equality and social justice. This work is an important contribution to the history of the black freedom struggle, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone who cares about human rights in America.
Later life
Robinson met Lyndon LaRoucheLyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
in 1983 and a year later served as a founding board member of the LaRouche-affiliated Schiller Institute
Schiller Institute
The Schiller Institute is an international political and economic thinktank, one of the primary organizations of the LaRouche movement, with headquarters in Germany and the United States, and supporters in Australia, Canada, Russia, and South America, among others, according to its website.The...
. In 1992, proclamations of "Amelia Boynton Robinson Day" in Seattle and Washington State were rescinded when officials learnt of Robinson's involvement in the Schiller Institute, the first time such an action had been taken. A spokesman for the Seattle mayor said, "It was a very difficult decision. The mayor has a lot of respect for her courage during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but we don't feel her handlers gave us full and accurate information about her current activities. Officials said they had not been aware of the Schiller Institute's affiliation with LaRouche. Robinson commented in an interview, "I have had worse things than that done to me when I was fighting for people's right to vote. I have been called rabble-rouser, agitator. But because of my fighting, I was able to hand to the entire country the right for people to vote. To give me an honor and rescind it because I am fighting for justice and for a man who has an economic program that will help the poor and the oppressed ... if that is the reason, then I think they did more good than they did harm." According to the Lewiston Morning Tribune, she stated that "people get the wrong image of LaRouche because government leaders are spreading lies about him."
In 2004 Robinson sued The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
for defamation, asking for between $1 and $10 million in damages. She contended that the 1999 TV movie Selma, Lord, Selma
Selma, Lord, Selma
Selma, Lord, Selma is a 1999 American film based on true events that happened in March of 1965, known as Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. The film tells the story through the eyes of an 11-year-old African American girl named Sheyann Webb . It premiered as a television movie on ABC on January 17,...
, a docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
based on a book written by two young participants in Bloody Sunday, falsely depicted her as a stereotypical "black Mammy" whose key role was to "make religious utterances and to participate in singing spirituals and protest songs." She lost the case.
During the fall of 2007, Robinson toured Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in her capacity as Vice President of the Schiller Institute
Schiller Institute
The Schiller Institute is an international political and economic thinktank, one of the primary organizations of the LaRouche movement, with headquarters in Germany and the United States, and supporters in Australia, Canada, Russia, and South America, among others, according to its website.The...
, and spoke with European youth about her support for LaRouche, Martin Luther King, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as the continuing problem of racism in the United States
Racism in the United States
Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans...
, which she said was illustrated by the recent events in Jena, Louisiana
Jena Six
The Jena Six were six black teenagers convicted in the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured in the assault by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment for his injuries at an emergency room...
.
In 2010, plans were publicized for her former house on Lapsley Street, Selma, to be restored; the Atlanta-based Gateway Educational Foundation estimated it would spend $700,000 on the project, which would include a statue of Sam and Amelia Boynton. In February 2011, aged 99, she returned to her hometown Savannah, to address students at Savannah State University
Savannah State University
Savannah State University is a four-year, state-supported, historically black university located in Savannah, Georgia. Savannah State holds the distinction as the oldest public historically black university in Georgia...
.
External links
- Amelia Boynton Robinson's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- Amelia Boynton Robinson at the Encyclopedia of AlabamaEncyclopedia of AlabamaThe Encyclopedia of Alabama is a comprehensive source of information on the state of Alabama's history, culture, geography, and natural environment. It is a state-wide collaboration that involves more than forty institutions from across Alabama that share their archives with the project...