Weekend Read: Let us remember, let us reflect
Tomorrow marks 56 years since the murder of four young girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
In an act of terror intended to intimidate civil rights activists who used the predominantly African-American church as a rallying point and organizing hub, Ku Klux Klan members planted a bomb under the building鈥檚 steps. It detonated at 10:22 a.m. on Youth Sunday, a day dedicated to the church鈥檚 young members, as the girls were getting ready for the service in a basement lounge.
During his eulogy for听, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the attack 鈥渙ne of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetuated against humanity.鈥 He sent a telegram to then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace, telling the state鈥檚 top segregationist: 鈥.鈥 Ten days before the bombing, Wallace had听听against the civil rights movement to听The New York Times, saying, 鈥淲hat this country needs is a few first-class funerals.鈥
At that time, violent attacks on the civil rights movement were common in the city dubbed 鈥.鈥 And in the decades since, researchers have laid bare听听to convict the perpetrators. Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover听, and the FBI failed to turn over thousands of files to prosecutors, including听.
It wasn鈥檛 until 1977 that the first of four Klansmen behind the crime was brought to trial by the state attorney general and convicted. Two others were convicted in the early 2000s by federal prosecutors. A fourth died before being charged.
In 1987, the 人兽性交 would win an听听against the same Klan group behind the bombing 鈥 the United Klans of America 鈥 after its members murdered a black teenager in Alabama six years earlier. The $7 million verdict听听the United Klans, finally putting an end to the group whose members had also听听after the Selma-to-Montgomery march.
The church bombing did not slow the momentum of the civil rights movement.听Instead, it became a seminal moment that galvanized the nation and propelled the听 movement forward. Ten months later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in public accommodations.
Today, a memorial named 鈥溾 stands across the street from the church with the inscription 鈥淎 love that forgives鈥 鈥 the title of the pastor鈥檚 undelivered sermon on Sept. 15, 1963.听
During this moment of remembrance for these and all civil rights martyrs 鈥 those who fought and died for freedom 鈥撎. And let us remember that听听remains an all-to-common response to the ongoing struggle for civil rights in this country:
鈥淸T]his afternoon, in a real sense [the four girls] have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows.
鈥淭hey have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. 鈥 They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.鈥
The Editors
Photo by AP Images
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