Amelia Boynton Robinson
Honored in Detroit

		EIRNS/ Amelia Boynton Robinson, center, at the Toledo cadre school with members of the LaRouche Youth Movement.

Mrs. Robinson's tour began with her participation in the three-day Midwest LaRouche Youth Movement cadre school in Toledo, Ohio, Sept. 2-5, where the dramatic review of her lifelong fight for civil rights, human rights, and justice, and her role as international collaborator of Lyndon and Helga LaRouche and the Schiller Institute quickly became the moral standard that all participants felt compelled to measure themselves against, as they considered the challenge of leadership posed by Lyndon LaRouche in his opening remarks.

		EIRNS/Sharon Stevens Amelia Boynton Robinson signing her autobiography Bridge Across Jordan.

The public events included: a meeting with the UAW retirees; a briefing to a class at Davenport University; a radio interview on the Henry Ford University station; meetings with two Detroit City Council members and staff; a meeting with one of the area's leading anti-war activists; a private tour of the Charles Wright Museum of African-American History; a presentation to the Annual "Grandparents Raising Grandchildren" conference at Cobo Hall; a discussion with those planning to honor Dr. King, participation in an anti-Bush rally in downtown Detroit; a presentation and book signing of her autobiography, Bridge Across Jordan" to a LYM meeting in Redford; and a presentation to a mini-conference organized on short notice at Davenport University.

The impact Mrs. Robinson, who is affectionately known as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," can been seen from the following anecdotes: The staff of the Detroit City Council, many of whom have been following LaRouche at a distance for years, as soon as they heard that Mrs. Robinson was coming to Detroit, arranged to have the Council present her with a resolution honoring her lifelong fight for human rights, and her recent years collaboration with Lyndon and Helga LaRouche. The resolution was presented to her on Friday.

		EIRNS/Sharon Stevens Amelia Boynton Robinson with the resolution from Detroit City Council. Mrs. Robinson is shown here with Detroit, City Council member Kenneth V. Cockrel, Jr., and Cockrel’s aid Dale Foster.

During the discussion period, the wife of the museum's founder asked the question that was lurking in the back of the minds of many others: When and why did Mrs. Robinson affiliate herself with Lyndon LaRouche and the Schiller Institute? Her answer moved nearly all of the attendees to think, to buy her book and have her autograph it, and to get more acquainted with the ideas and policies of the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche movement.

We had been referred to a class at a local university that was doing a research project on Viola Liuzo, a white housewife from Detroit, who had travelled to Selma, Alabama in 1965, to help in the marches, and who was killed by an FBI informant working with the KKK. Amelia, who led the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where she was beaten and gassed by the Alabama state stormtroopers, and left for dead, knew Mrs. Liuzo personally, and the class organizers were ecstatic at the opportunity to meet Mrs. Robinson, and get a first-hand, eye-witness report on the struggle in Selma. The civil rights heroine gave a briefing to the class on Thursday, and on very short notice, the school decided to organize a Sunday afternoon seminar so that others would have the chance to meet and talk with Mrs. Robinson, a true representative of "living history. "

The seminar, with over 60 people in attendance, began with the LYM singing the Negro Spiritual "Oh Freedom." Mrs. Robinson spoke about the importance of the right to vote, about the work she and her husband did to register voters, and their work with Dr. Martin Luther King. When Mrs. Robinson discussed her own jail time, and how the people of Selma assured her she was not alone, the LYM spontaneously sang the Spiritual "Come by here" -- just as was done at that Selma jailhouse in 1965. She answered the question about her work with the LaRouche movement, by saying, " I know now that's why God kept me alive."

As she also did in her other events and interviews, Mrs.Robinson updated the class on the current situation, including the Katrina disaster, and on the necessity of the leadership roles played by Lyndon LaRouche, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and the Schiller Institute, in leading the continuing struggle for civil rights and justice today.

Many people in and around the Motor City, who were previously pessimistic about the potential for positive change, especially in areas of national policy, were inspired by the experiences, wisdom and courage of Amelia Boynton Robinson. And she has promised to return for another tour.