This act is "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity," declared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in regard to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963.
The blast of 15 sticks of dynamite killed four young girls and injured 22 others. The dead were Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson, all 14, and 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair.
Bob Chambliss, a Ku Klux Klansman, known as "Dynamite Bob" for having bombed -- and bragged about bombing -- numerous black churches and homes in the area, was tried in October 1963 for the fatal bombing.
He was convicted only of possessing 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit and charged a $100 fine and six months in jail.
In 1977, Chambliss was retried and, this time, convicted on four counts of murder. Disclosures during the trial showed that the 1963 investigation was directly and intentionally hindered by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
In 2001, two accomplices to the bombing, Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., and Bobby Frank Cherry, were also convicted of murder. Critical evidence included taped conversations that the FBI had secretly recorded in 1964 and then withheld.
"Ballad of Birmingham," by Dudley Randall
"Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?"
"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren't good for a little child."
"But, mother, I won't be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free."
"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children's choir."
She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.
The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.
She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
"O, here's the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?"
The Birmingham Pledge ...
... is a grassroots effort to recognize the dignity and worth of every individual by making a personal, daily commitment to remove prejudice from our own lives and to treat all people with respect. Written by Birmingham attorney James E. Rotch in November 1997 and launched in 1998, the pledge has spread worldwide by other municipalities that have also taken it to heart. It is painted, in mural fashion, on the side of the Birmingham Police Administration Building.
It reads: I believe that every person has worth as an individual. I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color. I believe that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful. If it is my thought or act, it is harmful to me as well as to others.
Therefore, from this day forward, I will strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions. I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity. I will treat all people with dignity and respect, and I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my efforts.
Next blog: Bethel Baptist Church: Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth