It was Youth Day at church on September 15, 1963. The children were excited to be ushers and speakers. Parents were excited to watch their children.
At 10:22 am a bomb went off and killed four instantly. A fifth little girl named Sarah Collins Rudolph was injured and taken to the hospital. She lost an eye and was partially blind in the other. Sarah had PTSD, but no one talked about it back then. She is still alive today.
The sermon topic that day was to be A Love That Reveals.
In 1963, there was chaos and racial unrest. Anger was high and the church was surrounded and barricaded on September 15. That same day, two boys Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware were killed. Both instances were racially motivated.
The civil rights leaders were very brave, and the talk among themselves went like this: “We go into Birmingham, someone is not coming out.”
The church often received threats. Churches were a target. Imagine being afraid to go to church … or school … or anywhere.
Birmingham was a boomtown made up of freedmen, immigrants, and sharecroppers. After the workday, shortly after 5, blacks had no place to go. So the churches were the place to gather. Singing was always part of the evening. Songs revolved around the topic of freedom. Also, during civil rights times, mass meetings took place in the churches to organize marches and sit-ins.
The First Colored Baptist Church Birmingham started elsewhere as a store front church. However, it was in the white part of town so they were forced to relocate. They built 16th Street Baptist Church on the current site, but it was torn down. The city condemned the building citing that the steeple was too high.
Martin Luther King Jr. was shaken by this cruel act and needless death of four innocent little girls. He spoke at the funeral. This was a turning point for civil rights.
People moved away. People left the church. Many members suffered with PTSD.
Between 1977 and 2002 the cases were reopened and the four KKK members were convicted. Justice was delayed but not denied.
Spike Lee made the movie The Four Girls. He attended one of the annual remembrances.
Jim Crow laws had water fountains for white people next to water fountains for black people. Several of our tour guides admitted to drinking from the whites only drinking fountains to see if the water actually tasted better!!
I discovered this Jim Crow Museum on the Internet. It is in Big Rapids, Michigan on the campus of Ferris State University. The “curator” started to collect racist items. Many were being discarded. He believes that one must show intolerance to teach tolerance. It is quite shocking.
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