LEGEND

Selma Civil Rights Icon Dies at 104

Amelia Boynton Robinson passes away.

Civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson, who helped lead the Bloody Sunday voting rights march in 1965, died on Wednesday, according to her son. She was 104. Boynton Robinson, who advocated for black voting rights and became the first black woman to run for Congress in Alabama, was one of the many beaten during the historic march across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama. She invited Martin Luther King Jr. to Selma to ignite the civil rights movement and helped plan the march. Her role led her to be a guest of honor at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Actress Lorraine Toussaint portrayed her in the movie Selma. Boynton Robinson was hospitalized in July after suffering a stroke. She turned 104 on August 18.