Voting rights icon in critical condition after stroke

Published 8:24 pm Friday, August 7, 2015

A cornerstone in the voting rights movement, 103-year-old Amelia Boynton Robinson, is still in critical condition after suffering a stroke in July, according to her family.

The family released a statement Thursday with an update on her condition.

“Last month, Dr. Amelia Boynton Robinson was hospitalized after suffering a massive stroke. Presently, she is in stable, but critical condition,” the statement read. “Her physicians, nurses and other health care providers are working around the clock to give her the best of care and the required medical attention she needs.”

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The family is asking for prayer and support while Boynton Robinson recovers.

“The family asks that you continue to lift her up in your prayers for recovery, and to lift up the family in your prayers as we bind together in our loved one’s best interest,” the statement read.

Boynton Robinson was one of the many foot soldiers that set off to march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965, a day that would become known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Boynton Robinson and others were brutally attacked by Dallas County sheriff’s deputies and Alabama State Troopers.

A picture of Robinson beaten unconscious painted a vivid image of how tense the movement had become and was printed in newspapers across the country.

“Ms. Boynton suffered grave injustices on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma at the hands of state troopers … yet she refused to be intimidated,” said U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell in January before taking Boynton Robinson as her guest to the State of the Union Address.

“She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., my colleague Rep. John Lewis and thousands of others from Selma to Montgomery and ultimately witnessed the day when their work led to the passage of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

Boynton Robinson is one of the last surviving members of the Courageous Eight, a group that helped lead the movement in 1965.

Boynton Robinson dedicated her life to voting rights at an early age, moving to Dallas County in the 1930s and registering to vote in 1932.

Boynton Robinson, who now lives in Tuskegee, was in Selma for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in March.

Boynton Robinson held hands with President Barack Obama, as a group of delegates that included Congressman John Lewis, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The city of Selma named part of a street after Boynton Robinson and her late husband, Sam Boynton in 2014.

People who wish to assist the family with medical expenses can call her daughter Germaine Bowser at 267-252-7750 or her son, Bruce Boynton, at 349-3694.