Delta Sigma Theta Sorority to host Leadership Luncheon
Published 1:52 pm Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Two women who played a big role in the 1965 Voting Rights Act will be honored at a leadership luncheon on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Selma Convention Center.
The Selma Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is sponsoring an inaugural leadership luncheon commemorating the legacies of Amelia Boynton Robinson and Margaret Jones Moore.
The guest speaker for the event will be Rhonda Briggins of Atlanta. Tickets are $25.
Boynton-Robinson is known as the “Matriarch of the Voting Rights Movement.” She joined her husband, Samuel Boynton in Selma in 1930 and led the fight to get African-Americans to vote. In 1964, Boynton-Robinson became the first African American woman to run for Congress.
Boynton-Robinson was also a member of the brave Courageous Eight and one of the first African Americans registered to vote in Alabama. She and her daughter-in-law, Betty Boynton, were foot soldiers. She died on Aug. 26, 2016, a few days after turning 104. Boynton Street is named after Boynton-Robinson and her husband.
Moore was born in Catherine, a small town in Wilcox County. The family moved to Selma after her father died. She taught English at R. B. Hudson High School, then an all-black school. Moore was one of the first few black school teachers to participate in the “Black Pride Movement.”
Moore marched to the Dallas County courthouse day after day with hopes of registering to vote. She participated in “Bloody Sunday” and was among those injured and hospitalized. In 1994, Moore was inducted into the National Women’s Voting Rights Hall of Fame. She died in a fatal boating accident on March 13, 1975.