President Obama Honored Selma's Amelia Boynton: A Petition for More!

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According to Wikipedia (here) Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson was born on August 18, 1911. Her pedigree in the fight for Civil Rights is only comparable to the other notable greats. As a matter of fact, Amelia Boynton meet, worked with and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King on Bloody Sunday.

There's a 50 year anniversary coming up next month and some of my friends, along with others, are planning to be there. President Obama, who has already given honor to Amelia Boynton, as she was granted permission to attend the 2015 State of the Union Address.

But many of U.S. in America, including dear friends of Amelia, such as Norma Jackson - want just a little bit more.

Please consider signing the PETITION to President Obama, concerning Amelia Platts Bynton Robinson?
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[center] [font size=6]Petitioning President Barack Obama[/font]

[font size=5]{Please}
Nominate Amelia Boynton Robinson
for a Presidential Medal of Freedom[/font][/center]
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It would seem that MoveOn.org had a petition on this issue; but such is now redacted. This particular PETITION that you are being asked to sign for Amelia Boynton, is by Amelia's fellow combatant and friend Norma Jackson's (also a woman of noble pedigree in the Civil Rights movement who wrote a very important public outcry letter to Charles Barkley (on Facebook - HERE)).

Here's just some of the items, as noted upon Wikipedia, concerning the noble works of Amelia Boynton;

Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson (born August 18, 1911) is an American woman who was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama and a key figure in the 1965 march that became known as Bloody Sunday. In 1984, she became founding vice-president of the Schiller Institute affiliated with Lyndon LaRouche.

{Amelia} was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal in 1990.

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became involved as a girl in campaigning for women's suffrage.

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She taught in Georgia before starting with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Selma as the home demonstration agent for Dallas County. Robinson educated the county's rural population about food production, nutrition, healthcare, and other subjects related to agriculture and homemaking.

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Amelia and (husband) Samuel knew the noted scholar George Washington Carver at the Tuskegee Institute,
....... which they both attended

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MEETING MLK

in order to help fund a community center in Selma, Alabama. In 1954 the Boyntons met Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where King was the pastor.

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In 1963, Samuel Boynton died. Amelia made her home and office in Selma a center for strategy sessions for Selma's civil rights battles; she worked with Martin Luther King

While Selma had a population that was 50 percent black, only 1 percent of the town's African-American residents were registered as voters in 1965. That year in 1964 Boynton also ran for the Congress from Alabama, the first female African-American ever to do so and the first female of any race to run for the ticket of the Democratic Party in Alabama. Hoping to encourage African-American registration and voting, she received 10% of the vote.

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Amelia Boynton helped organize the march

Pictured above, at top, is from the PETITION. This one immediately above, is from the AmeliaBoynton.org website that is also seeking help to restore the historical locations (I've rushed this thread up, but will do more here and post a future thread on the charity work to restore the historical places in Selma).

To protest disenfranchisement of blacks and segregation, Amelia Boyton helped organize a march to the state capital of Montgomery, initiated by James Bevel, which took place on March 7, 1965. Led by John Lewis, Hosea Williams and Bob Mants, and including Rosa Parks and others among the marchers,[6] the event became known as Bloody Sunday when county and state police stopped the march and beat demonstrators after they left the Edmund Pettus Bridge and crossed into the county.[6] Boynton was beaten unconscious; a photograph of her lying on Edmund Pettus Bridge went around the world.[7] Another short march led by Martin Luther King took place two days later; they turned back. With federal protection and thousands of marchers joining them, a third march reached Montgomery on March 24, entering with 25,000 people.[6]

The events of Bloody Sunday galvanized public opinion and contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; Boynton was a guest of honor when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

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As Wikipedia further notes;

In 1990 Boynton was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal.

Amelia's, Bridge Across Jordan, includes tributes from friends and colleagues, including Coretta Scott King and Andrew Young. Mrs. King wrote:

In Bridge Across Jordan, Amelia Boynton Robinson has crafted an inspiring, eloquent memoir of her more than five decades on the front lines of the struggle for racial equality and social justice. This work is an important contribution to the history of the black freedom struggle, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone who cares about human rights in America.

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Amelia's friend and fellow fighter for Civil Rights equality and freedoms, Mrs. Norma Jackson - says in her PETITION;

Please join the National Nominating Committee in supporting Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson for a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Help us to encourage President Barack Obama to accept this moment in history and select her for this esteemed Award.

On March 7, 1965, Amelia Boynton was beaten, knocked unconscious and left to die on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in what has become known as “Bloody Sunday.” At 103, she is still a champion for freedom, justice and equality.


Because of the pivotal work that she performed in securing the right to vote for Blacks in the United States, our nominee, a resident of Tuskegee, Alabama since 1976, is known as the “Matriarch of the Voting Rights Movement.” Please sign this petition and join our Committee in nominating Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson, and in urging President Barack Obama to name her as a recipient for a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom.


Thank you for your support.


National Nominating Committee

Post Office Box 941

Tuskegee Institute, Alabama 36087


Dr. Elaine C. Harrington, Chair

Atty. Lateefah Muhammad, Co-Chair

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Amelia Boynton is 103 years old and still fighting. We can, at the barest of minimums, do a sweet thing for a wonderful person noble. She deserves all this and much, much more. I, for one, am of the hopes and prayers that our POTUS already has a grand design (for when he visits Selma, in March of this year, for the 50th Anniversary.

MEANWHILE....................

[center][font size=5]Please consider signing, endorsing and circulating the[/font]
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[font size=6] PETITION [/font][br]

[font size=5] to President Obama

to have him grant Amelia Boynton Robinson

a Presidential Medal of Freedom[/font]
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