Black History day 26 - Amelia Boynton: taking a stand, risking her life

[marble falls]

Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2020, 10:11 AM - Edit history (1)

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103-year-old activist: I was almost killed fighting for freedom

https://nypost.com/2014/12/01/103-year-old-activist-i-was-almost-killed-fighting-for-freedom/

It was the sickening image that woke up the world to the brutality that gave birth to the civil rights struggle: a God-fearing, middle-aged woman lying helpless and unconscious on the side of the road. She had been savagely beaten with clubs. Then, a helmeted law enforcement officer pumped tear gas into her throat before leaving her for dead. Or, as the racist sheriff callously put it, “for the buzzards to eat.”

Newswires flashed the shocking March 7, 1965, pictures of Mrs. Amelia Boynton across the globe. Every major newspaper and TV network carried them. And the message was loud and clear: This is what America does to blacks who dare make a stand.

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“I wasn’t looking for notoriety [when we marched],” recalls Boynton Robinson, during an interview with The Post at her home. “But if that’s what it took [to get attention], I didn’t care how many licks I got. It just made me even more determined to fight for our cause.”



She might not have been well enough to attend the Atlanta preview of the film, but she’s confident it will accurately portray the tense period when the civil rights battle concentrated on her former town of Selma. At the time, even though they made up half of the population, only 1 percent of blacks were entitled to vote, because of literacy tests, the preposterous bureaucracy it took wading through to register, plus the payment of a poll tax well beyond their means. They also lived in fear of the murderous Ku Klux Klan, which ruled the surrounding area, victimizing anyone it believed was disrupting the status quo of white rule.

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[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R! Wow! What a remarkable lady!

Thanks so much for posting! I saw "Selma," powerful film, and I'm very interested to learn more - I was just reading more about her.

[marble falls]

2. What makes her remarkable is she wasn't a radical, she was like Rosa Parks ...

a principled human being who just plain had enough.