According to Al.com, Amelia Boynton-Robinson, who was brutally beaten during the “Bloody Sunday” march in 1965, died on Aug. 26. She was 104.
She had suffered a stroke earlier this year and been hospitalized at Nolan Hospital in Montgomery since July 10, said her niece, Germaine Bowser, whom Robinson raised as her daughter.
Boynton-Robinson had been active in voter registration in the 1930s and became a symbol of the brutality of Bloody Sunday when she and other marchers were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965. She was beaten unconscious by state troopers and photographs of her lying on the road were published around the world.
“To me she was a hero,” Bowser said. “She was fearless. We had the Ku Klux Klan shooting in our windows, throwing rocks, calling, threatening to bomb the house. She would say, well, they’re afraid of us. She was calm. She took it in stride.”
Boynton-Robinson’s beating in Selma played out dramatically in TV news reports and was dramatized in the movie “Selma,” released in 2014. Actress Lorraine Touissant portrayed Boynton in the movie.
“We stood in front of the TV and watched the beatdown,” Bowser said. “We couldn’t do anything to help our mother. I don’t think the beatdown in the movie came close to the beatdown we saw in black-and-white on TV.”
Boynton’s house at 1315 Lapsley Street in Selma in 1965 served as a headquarters of the Selma march planning, with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders convening there.
“It’s where everybody came to eat,” Bowser said. “They used it as a headquarters. They always ate at mom’s house.”
Memorial services and the homecoming details are listed below and are subject to change. All times are in Central Standard Time (CST) zone.
Memorial Service Saturday, September 5, 2015 (SELMA, AL)
9 a.m. Boynton-Robinson will lie in State until 11 a.m. Foot Solders will escort horse drawn carriage from Walker Mortuary to Tabernacle Baptist Church.
11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Memorial at Tabernacle Baptist Church, 1431 Broad Street, Selma, AL 36701
Memorial Sunday, September 6, 2015 (TUSKEGEE, AL)
10 a.m. Dr. Boynton-Robinson will lie in State until Noon at the Chapel of Tuskegee University, 1200 West Montgomery Road, Tuskegee, AL 36088
12:00 p.m. – 3 p.m. Program at Tuskegee University Chapel, 1200 West Montgomery Road, Tuskegee, AL 36088
State Commemoration Tuesday, September 8, 2015 (SELMA, AL)
1 p.m. Homegoing Celebration Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma
