Amelia Boynton Robinson, one of Selma’s most respected civil rights activists, briefly shared the spotlight with President Barack Obama at his State of Union address Tuesday.

Cameras momentarily focused on the 103-year-old voting rights activist, who took part in the 1965 Blood Sunday march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Selma native and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell invited Robinson as her guest to hear the speech.

“I feel as though Terri and I have a bond that cannot be broken,” Robinson said. “I am delighted that she invited me as her guest to hear our President give the State of the Union address. I appreciate the work of her entire staff and my assistants in Tuskegee who helped make my trip to Washington possible. I will forever remember this day.”

Robinson became the first woman and the first African-American from Alabama to run for Congress in 1964, earning 10 percent of the vote during a time when black people only made up 1 percent of the voting population in Alabama’s 7th Congressional district, according to Sewell’s office.

“Amelia Boynton challenged an unfair and unjust system that kept African-Americans from exercising their constitutionally protected right to vote,” said Sewell, a Selma native who represents Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. “She paved the way for me to accomplish all that I have today, and her legacy should inspire us not to take any of our rights for granted.”