AMELIA BOYNTON
G'day folks,
Here is another outstanding woman involved in civil rights. She is also 103! Amelia Boynton was a woman of many historical firsts and
played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement. Her tireless and tenacious
work even inspired MLK to join the Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama.
With the
recent release of the movie Selma, the world is getting another chance
to learn the story of civil rights activist Amelia Boynton.
Actress Lorraine Toussaint reenacts Boynton's instrumental role in this chapter
of American history. She was one of the organizers of the famous march from
Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965.
During
this protest, Amelia Boynton (now known as Amelia Boynton Robinson) refused to
run away from the police. Already a longtime civil rights activist, Boynton
stood in shock as the officers began to attack the protestors. She nearly lost
her life that day—a day now known as "Bloody Sunday." Boynton, along
with other civil rights activists, is credited for generating public support
for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Champion for Civil Rights
Born
Amelia Platts in Savannah, Georgia, in 1911, Amelia Boynton was only nine years
old when she helped her mother support women's suffrage. She studied at Georgia
State (now Savannah State University) and then at the Tuskegee Institute in
Alabama. Bright and determined, Boynton became one of the first African
Americans to register to vote in Alabama in 1932. She also worked to register
other African Americans as voters, forming the Dallas County Voters League the
following year.
With her
husband, Samuel Boynton, she became a local activist for civil rights in
Alabama. The pair campaigned for African Americans to be able to own property,
receive education and vote. After working for decades with little success with
registering voters, Boynton encouraged the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee to come to Selma to help.
Even after her husband's death in 1963,
Boynton remained dedicated to social justice. She threw her hat into the
political arena the following year. She ran for Congress as a Democrat, making
history as the first African American woman to seek national office in Alabama.
"I was the only woman, black, white blue or whatnot ever to run,"
Boynton later told the Washington Post. While she didn't win, Boynton
still managed to earn roughly 10 percent of the vote.
'Bloody Sunday'
In late
1964, Boynton sought for additional support for her efforts in Selma. Fellow
activist Andrew Young
credited her with creating the Civil Rights Movement in her community. As he
later explained to the Michigan Chronicle, Boynton approached Dr. Martin Luther
King "just before Christmas in 1964 and said, 'You need
to come and help us in Selma,' and that is where the Selma movement
started." She inspired King and members of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference to take action in Selma.
The decision to
march from Selma to Montgomery came after the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson
in February 1965. Jackson was a young African-American teenager killed
by the police in Marion, Alabama, after attending a rally. On March 7, 1965,
roughly 600 protestors began their 50-mile march to Montgomery. Governor George C.
Wallace had forbid them to go, but they pressed on anyway.
The marchers didn't get too far before encountering state and local police
waiting for them on the other side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were
ordered to go home, but the protestors didn't move. Under the orders of Sheriff
Jim Clark, the officers were told to strike those who refused to leave.
Before
long, the scene turned to chaos with the officers attacking the protestors with
billy clubs and tear gas. As she later described the event to the Mirror
newspaper, "I think I was frozen. It was not out of fear. It was amazement,
of people being beaten. I saw blood on the highway. I saw people falling."
Boynton was struck repeatedly with a billy club and had tear gas sprayed in her
face while she lay unconscious. She had been left for dead, but another
protestor came to her aid. The image of Boynton, a middle-aged African American
woman, being held by a fellow activist appeared in numerous newspapers and
magazines and ignited more support for their efforts.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Boynton
and 16 other protestors were injured so badly on "Bloody Sunday" that
they needed to be taken to the hospital. But she was well enough two days later
to join Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other protestors on another march to the
now infamous bridge. Later that month, a group of civil rights protestors
completed the journey from Selma to Montgomery. This time, the activists had
the backing of the federal government. The attack on Boynton and the other
protestors had also spurred on the president and Congress to make legal
reforms.
Later in 1965, Boynton saw her dreams for
political change become a reality. She was invited by President Lyndon B.
Johnson to attend the signing of the Voting Rights Act that
August. This new law put an end to such discriminatory measures as literacy
tests that used to deny many African Americans the right to vote. The act also
gave the federal government more oversight over state election practices.
After
passing of this important legislation, Boynton continued to work for civil
rights. She served on the boards of the King Center for Non-Violent Social
Change and National Voting Rights Museum. From the 1980s until 2009, Boynton
also worked for the Schiller Institute.
Now 103 years old, Boynton is one of the few living Civil
Rights era leaders. She has received many honors for her lifelong commitment to
social change, including the 1990 Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Medal. In
2015, Boynton was invited to President Barack
Obama's State of the Union address by Alabama representative
Terri Sewell. She was delighted to be there to support the president.
"It's a dream come true to have a black man in the White House,"
Boynton said, according to the New
York Post. Boynton also plans on attending the 50th anniversary of
Bloody Sunday in March 2015. She still dreams of the day when "prejudice
will be gone forever."
Clancy's comment: Brave lady. 103!! Wow.
I'm ...
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