DOINews: DOI/VISTA Celebrates MLK Day with 'Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement'

DOI/VISTA team member Lindsay Lunsford meets with Ameila Boynton, who is known as the "Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

DOI/VISTA Lindsay Lunsford, serving at the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, had the incredible opportunity to meet the "Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," Amelia Boynton Robinson. Robinson organized the first of the three civil rights marches in Selma and personally wrote to and invited Martin Luther King Jr. to take part in the event that would lead to the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As part of her service, Lunsford assisted in organizing volunteer mobilization for a small group of youth from the Tuskegee Youth Safe Haven, Alabama Rural Ministries, and Tuskegee United Leadership and Innovation Program to Robinson's home, where she shared her wise words and first-hand account of King. Hearing Robinson tell her story of social action, change, and empowerment to local youth was the perfect Day of Service to commemorate King's life and achievements.

This event was part of the larger MLK Day of Service, in which VISTAs across the country participated in direct service opportunities. The work done by VISTAs is meant to honor the legacy of King and continue to provide support and assistance to communities across the nation.

The DOI/VISTA Team is a partnership among the U.S. Department of the Interior, AmeriCorps VISTA, and our DOI site sponsors that places national service volunteers on public lands to serve impoverished communities and people throughout the United States and its territories. Engaging underserved populations, particularly youth, the DOI/VISTA Team fosters economic opportunities in conservation and land-management fields, STEM education through environmental science awareness, and healthy futures.

Submitted by: DOI-VISTA Team
Jan. 28, 2015