Two stories about women who have made a difference

This column will appear every other week in Seacoast Sunday and the Tuskegee News. This week, Guy Trammell, an African American man from Tuskegee, Ala., and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write about a woman they each considered a hero.

By Guy Trammell Jr.

Writing in The Outlook on Nov. 10, 1900, Booker T. Washington said, “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

Little Miss Amelia Isadora Platts' heritage was German, Cherokee and African American. At age 9, she was encouraging the colored people of her community in Savannah, Ga., to register and vote, passing out information with her mother. She was also involved in campaigning for women’s suffrage.

Amelia earned a degree in home economics from Tuskegee Institute in 1927. She worked as an extension agent in Selma, and met and married another Tuskegee grad working in extension, Samuel William Boynton. They had two sons, Bill Jr. and Bruce. Selma was extremely racist, and most white businesses made a point of humiliating Black customers. Therefore, the Boyntons never used their first names. They were known as S.W. Boynton and A.P. Boynton, which forced the white businesses to show a degree of respect.

In 1934, A.P. Boynton worked through the blatantly discriminatory Alabama system and registered to vote. When she helped others to register, Sheriff Jim Clark violently assaulted her.

S.W. Boynton founded the first Black-owned insurance company in Selma as a tool to reach and teach Black farmers across Alabama to become land owners and to invest their money. Then Selma’s racism struck back. One night as he was closing up, a group of white men entered his shop and beat him brutally. Their rage rose up again and they beat him over and over that night. He was hospitalized but never recovered, and he died in 1963. Fear in Selma was so pervasive that A.P. Boynton had problems finding a church for his funeral.

A.P. Boynton opened her home for civil rights strategy sessions with Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Diane Nash and Rev. James Bevel. The Voting Rights Bill was drafted on her kitchen table. In 1964, to motivate Black voter registration, she ran for Congress, the first Black woman to run for office in Alabama. She received 10% of the vote.

On March 7, 1965, A.P. Boynton participated in a protest march she helped organize. Led by John Lewis, Hosea Williams and Bob Mants, they headed to Montgomery. However, Jim Clark’s posse and state troopers gassed and beat them, chasing marchers into houses and beating them. They struck A.P. Boynton on her back and the back of her neck, leaving her unconscious in the street; her voice was never the same. This day is known as “Bloody Sunday.”

We knew her as Queen Mother Amelia Boynton-Robinson, registering Tuskegee’s public housing residents to vote. She said, “A voteless people is a hopeless people.” In 100-plus years of life, she witnessed Barack Obama as president and Rep. Terri Sewell as the first Black congresswoman from Alabama. Overcoming insurmountable obstacles, she inspires hope today.

By Amy Miller

I thought about the young hospital nurse who took care of my mother in her final days, but just as importantly took care of us, the family. She kept us anchored in the real world with friendly conversation, but gently honored our space as we entered the transcendent world that surrounds you when facing the loss of someone who has loved you your entire life. She cared for us as if we were the only family who ever lost a loved one at that hospital.

Then, I thought of my friend who is 10 years older than I am, but has lived far more tragedy than I expect to ever experience. And yet she has always, always, embraced life and all of its beauty. She has generously shared the wisdom and the pain that come from so much loss. At the same time, she was never afraid to love again after losing loved ones before their time.

Guy and I agreed to write about a hero - a woman and someone we have known personally.

Finally, I decided to share the story of Mirlene Lubin. Mirlene will never read this column. She has no local newspaper that would tell her story. Even if there were a newspaper in her hometown of Milot, Haiti, she would probably fly below the radar.

Mirlene is in her 40s and lives in a town of about 6,000 people in northern Haiti. She is raising two children and earns about $2,000 a year as assistant principal at an elementary school. Her home is without electricity. She was hired as a teacher but quickly became one of the most important people there. It is easy to see why. In a school without enough pencils or text books for its 500 students, where many students will never go to high school, Mirlene stays committed to learning and to loving.

When a computer was donated to the school, which has electricity only in the office and only when the generator runs, Mirlene was eager to pick up a new skill. When a quilter taught quilting as a microfinance project, Mirlene stayed late to learn the craft. When volunteers arrive to take photos of students for fundraising sponsorships, she deftly figures out the patchwork of name tags and gets the children to line up quietly. Mirlene is gentle with students, even as she exerts discipline. And she has a light in her eyes, even when she is stressed.

Like my friend in New England, Mirlene does not turn away from life despite disproportionate challenges. And like my friend, she extends her grace to the way she treats those of us lucky enough to know her.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Women who inspire: these stories shine a light on difference makers