And civil rights pioneer Amelia Boynton Robinson died Wednesday at the age of 104. In 1965, she was beaten unconscious as she attempted to cross Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge on what became known as Bloody Sunday. She was a lifelong activist for voting rights. President Obama praised her Wednesday, saying, “For most of her 104 years, Amelia committed herself to a simple, American principle: that everybody deserves the right to vote.” In March, Democracy Now! interviewed Amelia Boynton Robinson at the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

Amy Goodman: “What gave you the courage that day to face those state troopers?”

Amelia Boynton Robinson: “I was born that way. My mother was a civil rights activist back then, when I was born. And I worked with her at 11 years old. I worked with her when women’s suffrage become reality.”