Contents
Amelia Boynton Robinson
Helping organize Selma’s voting-rights campaign and surviving the violence of Bloody Sunday.
Congressional campaign · Selma voting-rights marches
- Born
- Unknown
- Birthplace
- Savannah, United States
- Died
- 26 August 2015
More people
Amelia Boynton Robinson
American civil-rights organizer whose decades of local work helped make the Selma campaign possible. Photographs of her injured on the Edmund Pettus Bridge brought national attention to the violence.
Early life
Savannah upbringing
Grew up in a family that encouraged civic participation; her mother promoted women’s suffrage.
Home economics
Studied at Tuskegee before working as an agricultural home-demonstration agent.
Career
- 1929–1950s
Grassroots organizing
Worked in rural Alabama and helped Black residents register to vote and acquire land.
- 1964–1965
Selma campaign
Ran for Congress and helped welcome national civil-rights organizers to Selma.
- Later decades
Public advocacy
Continued speaking about civil rights and published her memoir.
Campaigns & writings
Congressional campaign
Became the first Black woman in Alabama to run for Congress.
Selma voting-rights marches
Helped organize the campaign and was beaten unconscious on Bloody Sunday.
Bridge Across Jordan
A memoir of her civil-rights work and personal life.
Beyond work
A family partnership
Worked alongside her husband Samuel Boynton in community organizing and local businesses.
Later political affiliation
Became a founding vice-president of the Schiller Institute, associated with Lyndon LaRouche.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and references ↗Biography and contributions ↗SNCC Digital Gateway biography ↗Photo: Ianbailey1983. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
