Figures in iconic image set to reunite

Published 7:31 pm Saturday, September 15, 2012

A photograph captures a single moment in time, and the emotion and impact caught on film sometimes has the power to captivate people’s memories for a lifetime.

A memory, however, is something that had been lost to 101-year-old Amelia Boynton-Robinson, the matriarch of the Voting Rights Movement.

Boynton-Robinson could not identify the man in the iconic photo that was taken of her in Selma on Bloody Sunday.

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That memory was lost until now.

Shawn Eckles, a consultant for the Amelia Boynton-Robinson Foundation operates Boynton-Robinson’s Facebook page and recently posted the photo, asking if anyone knew anything about the man that is cradling a beaten, Boynton-Robinson on the street.

Cassandra Jones, who is a friend of Boynton-Robinson on Facebook, saw the post where they were looking for information on the man in the photo and responded.

“She contacted us and said, ‘My father’s the one in the picture,’” Eckles said.

The man’s name is Joe Jones, and he and Boynton-Robinson have not seen each other since the day that photo was taken, more than 47 years ago.

Now that the two have found each other, plans for a reunion have been made. Boynton-Robinson lives in Tuskegee and Jones lives in Selma. The two will reunite for the first time on Sept. 22 at 1:30 p.m. Their reunion will take place at the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma.

The reunion will be open to the public, Eckles said.

“We just want to bring them together,” he said. “They’re going to share a few words about that experience that day.”