Tuskegee University Receives the Archives of a Civil Rights Icon
Filed in African-American History, HBCUs on June 28, 2013
Civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson has donated her personal memorabilia collection to Tuskegee University. Robinson was among the marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on “Bloody Sunday” on March 7, 1965. The marchers, who were calling for full voting rights for African Americans, were tear gassed and beaten by law enforcement officials. Robinson was beaten unconscious that day. For her efforts to organize the march, she was invited to the White House ceremony when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
The collection includes more than 3,000 items including photographs, books, speeches, and scrapbooks documenting her role in the civil rights movement.
Robinson is a graduate of the Class of 1927 at Tuskegee. She was the first Black woman in Alabama to run for a seat in Congress. Today she is still active in advocating for civil and human rights. She is 102 years old.
