Bloody Sunday
Survivor Interview
AMY GOODMAN: Your thoughts about what happened 50 years ago today? You were in that first protest. You were beaten.
AMELIA BOYNTON ROBINSON: Well, it was something that I figured that I could not resist, because we were trying to get people to register and voted, long before Dr. King was born. And we were working to get them to know that. And I say today, if you’re not a registered voter and you’re 18 years of age, you are a hopeless people, definitely hopeless, because you have nothing to say about your county, your city, your state, your nothing. So don’t be hopeless. Be a human being, a city, a citizen of the city of Selma, of the state, of Selma.
AMY GOODMAN: What gave you the courage that day to face those state troopers?
AMELIA BOYNTON ROBINSON: I was born that way. My mother was a civil rights activist back then, when I was born. And I worked with her at 11 years old. I worked with her when women’s suffrage became reality.
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you so much.