Often referred to as the Matriarch of the Voting Rights Movement, 103-year-old Amelia Boynton Robinson will travel to Washington, D.C. this week for the State of the Union address.

She will attend as a guest of U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, who is a native of Selma and represents Alabama’s 6th Congressional District.

Robinson was beaten unconscious and left for dead on Bloody Sunday in March 1965. An iconic photo of the moment ran on the front pages of 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,” Sewell said. “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.

Sewell said she hopes her special guest’s presences serves as a reminder about the sacrifices people made for the right to vote and how precious that right remains.

“We have come too far to turn back. I hope her presence at the State of the Union reminds all of us about the importance of voting and sacrifices brave Americans like Amelia Boynton endured so this nation could live up to the ideals of equality and justice for all.”

The State of the Union will air on broadcast television Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 8 p.m.