Trailblazing Civil Rights Movement leader Amelia Boynton Robinson dies at 104

On Wednesday, America lost a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement, Amelia Boynton Robinson.

Robinson passed away at the age of 104.

She is known for a horrific photo that spread around the world. Robinson was beaten unconscious and the photo shows her lying on the Edmund Pettus Bridge during a march that rightfully earned the name, Bloody Sunday.

Robinson helped to organize the march to the state’s capital, Montgomery. The March was led by John Lewis, Hosea Williams and Bob Mants. This was a protest against segregation and disenfranchisement.

The event became known as Bloody Sunday when police stopped the march and badly beat the protesters.

This march and a later march on Montgomery led by Dr. Martin Luther King led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

She was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal in the early 90s and just a few years earlier, she became the founding vice-president of the Schiller Institute.

In 1954. Boynton and her husband met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Her husband died a few years later in 1963.

As the Civil Rights Movement started to increase their efforts even more, she turned her home and office in Selma into a center for strategy sessions.

Robinson ran for Congress in 1964 to encourage blacks to register to vote. She was the first black woman to run for office in Alabama and the first woman of any race to run on the Democratic ticket in the state.  

Click here to see video of Bloody Sunday.