Washington, D.C. -- 103-year-old voting rights activist Amelia Mrs. Boynton Robinson will attend the State of the Union as a guest of Congresswoman Terri Sewell. Actress Lorraine Toussaint portrayed Boynton in the Oscar-nominated film, Selma.

“Selma is a very powerful movie about a very powerful movement. Amelia Boynton Robinson was one of the courageous foot soldiers who dared to challenge an unfair and unjust system that kept African Americans from exercising their constitutionally protected right to vote.

“Mrs. Boynton Robinson suffered grave injustices on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma at the hands of state troopers on Bloody Sunday, yet she refused to be intimidated. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, my colleague Rep. John Lewis and thousands of others from Selma to Montgomery and ultimately witnessed the day when their work led to the passage of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“We have come too far to turn back. I hope her presence at the State of the Union reminds all of us about the importance of voting and sacrifices brave Americans like Amelia Boynton Robinson endured so this nation could live up to the ideals of equality and justice for all."

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Congresswoman Terri Sewell is a Democrat from Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.
A Member of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Select Intelligence Committee.