National

Hundreds In NYC Greet Civil Rights Legend Amelia Boynton Robinson

Published

11 years ago

June 24, 2015

Oakland Post

Amelia Boynton Robinson (center) flanked by Xavier and Annette Eikerenkoetter (Photo by Herb Boyd)

By Herb Boyd
Special to the NNPA

NEW YORK (NNPA) – At 103, Amelia Boynton Robinson may be bound and physically limited by a wheelchair, but her spirit, inspiration and memories are as fresh and rewarding as they were during the height of the Civil Rights Movement when her legend was born. For almost an hour recently at the United Palace House of Inspiration in Washington Heights, Robinson regaled an attentive audience with stories about the brutal experiences she endured when she was among those mercilessly attacked in Selma, Ala. in 1965.

Several members absorbed in her recounting of those days had seen the film “Selma” and how marvelously Lorraine Toussaint had portrayed Robinson, but to hear those moments retold by the woman who had survived the blows and to see actual film footage and stills projected on the screen behind her, the incidents conveyed a more powerful reality.

After the church’s spiritual director Xavier Eikerenkoetter, the son of the famous Rev. Ike, asked her to recall the march on Selma and “Bloody Sunday,” she began telling how she and others were beaten by the state troopers. “As I stepped aside from the troopers club, I felt a blow on my neck and my arm,” she said. “It could have injured me permanently if it had landed on my head. Another blow by a trooper as I was gasping for breath knocked me to the ground and there I lay unconscious.

“One of them shot tear gas over me, but the plastic rain cap saved my life because it had slipped down over my face and protected me from the worse fumes. One of the troopers said, ‘She’s dead.’ And they were told to drag me to the side of the road.” While she recounted the terrible scene, photos of it flashed on the screen as well as stills from the documentary Eyes on the Prize.

In one of them Robinson is seen sprawled on the ground and in the arms of a young man who had come to her rescue. “The cry went out for ambulances to come over the [Edmund Pettus] bridge and pick up the wounded and those thought to be dead, but Sheriff [Jim] Clark dared them to cross the bridge…I’m not going to call any ambulance for anybody! Let the buzzards eat ’em!”

But he finally relented, she said, after he was told that there may be a bloody retaliation and that he might be the first one. “I was told later that I was taken to the church after being given first aid on the way, but when I didn’t respond I was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital.

“When I regained consciousness I wondered where I was, but then I remembered the voice through the bullhorn, the gas being shot, and then the men with gas masks,” she related.

It took several years for her to fully recover from a beating that almost left her dead. Her once melodious voice was damaged by the gas, a voice that is no less commanding and urgent nowadays. Eikerenkoetter asked her about hatred, Sheriff Clark and why she attended his funeral in 2007.

“First of all, you can can’t be happy and have hate,” she answered. “…I went to Jim Clark’s funeral with two other friends and we were the only Blacks there. I wanted to prove to the people that I have no malice.” It was her religious background that informed her that Clark was one of God’s children and was not responsible for the hate in his heart.

“God’s love is the answer,” she repeated several times before demanding that all the young people over 18 to register and vote, something to which she had devoted much of her remarkable life. “A vote less people is a hopeless people,” she stated.

Eikerenkoetter and his associates, including a stage full of talented musicians, as they had done from the beginning of the ceremony, celebrated her with song. There were also proclamations from several political leaders, including one from Mayor Bill de Blasio cited Robinson’s tireless efforts and sacrifices for freedom and equality.

The long line of people invited to the stage to share a moment, a photograph with Robinson was indicative of the love she extended. And her additional blessings are readily available in her autobiography, Bridge Across Jordan, published by the Schiller Institute, a book that Coretta Scott King believed was “an important contribution to the history of the black freedom struggle.”

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

2 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

3 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

5 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke