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Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson is one of the most important personalities in the American Civil Rights Movement. Born in Georgia in 1911, she got involved as a young woman in campaigning for women's suffrage. During the 1960s, Mrs. Robinson's home and office in Selma, Alabama became the center of Selma's civil rights battles, used by Dr. Martin Luther King and his lieutenants, by Congressmen and attorneys from around the nation, to plan the demonstrations that would lead eventually to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She was beaten nearly to death by Alabama State Troopers during what became known as Bloody Sunday. However, she survived, and was present as President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.
In 1964, she was the first female African-American ever to seek a seat in Congress from Alabama, and the first woman, white or black, to run on the Democratic ticket in the state.
Amelia Robinson today is a leading member and Vice Chairman of the Schiller Institute, founded by Lyndon LaRouche and Helga Zepp LaRouche in 1984. Mrs. Robinson considers the Institute to be “following in the footsteps of Martin Luther King.” She is the most active living member of the original leadership of the American Civil Rights Movement.