Amelia Boynton Robinson a Civil Rights Activist

📌Category: History, History of the United States, Human rights, Racism, Social Issues, United States, World
📌Words: 405
📌Pages: 2
📌Published: 29 March 2021

“Only until all human beings recognize themselves as human beings will prejudice be gone forever. People ask me what race I am, but there is no such thing as race. I just answer: ‘I’m a member of the human race.’ ” (Amelia Boynton Robinson Quotes) Said by Amelia Boynton, a civil rights activist. Amelia wasn't mentioned in a lot of articles about the civil rights movement. However, she played an influential role in our history. Amelia’s activism started at the age of twenty-two, she led the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and she became the first African American woman in Alabama to run on the Democratic ticket for a seat in congress. 

When Amelia was twenty-two, she married her high school sweetheart Samuel Boynton. They had two children together, Bill Jr. and Bruce Carver. Amelia co-founded the Dallas County Voters League in 1933 alongside her husband. Additionally, they held African American voter registration drives from the 1930s through the 1950s. Her beloved husband Samuel passed away in 1963, but Amelia continued their commitment to helping African Americans. (Amelia Boynton Robinson's Biography)

After Amelia started her first movement, she led the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge (Amelia Boynton Robinson's Biography). People did not approve of her march so as  result, she was brutally beaten by state troopers and left blood-soaked and bruised. This event was made world-wide and declared to be a key part of the civil rights movement. After Amelia’s march, she was acknowledged by Martin Luther King Jr. and received the Martin Luther King Jr. medal of freedom as a result of her accomplishments. 

In 1964, Amelia ran on the democratic ticket for a seat in congress. By doing so, she became the first woman to run as a democratic candidate in the state of Alabama (Amelia Boynton) and became the first African American woman to do so in the United States. Sadly, Amelia passed away on August 26, 2015, at the age of 104, due to having multiple strokes. Her son Bruce Boynton said, “The truth of it is that was her entire life. That's what she was completely taken with. She was a loving person, very supportive, but civil rights was her life." (Amelia Boynton Robinson's Biography)

To conclude, Amelia Isadora Platts Boynton Robinson was an amazing tribute and part of the civil rights movement. She co-founded the Dallas County Voters League in 1933, held African American voter registration drives, led the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, ran on the Democratic ticket for a seat in congress, and became the first person to run on the democratic seat in congress.

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