16th Street Baptist Church bombing

==Aftermath==
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| style="text-align: left;" | They forever changed the face of this state and the history of this state. Their deaths made all of us focus upon the ugliness of those who would punish people because of the color of their skin.<ref name="Gadsden Times Sept. 16, 1990">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rEVHAAAAIBAJ&pg=1119,1596621 |title=Memorial Dedicated For Church Bombing Victims On Anniversary |work=[[Gadsden Times]] |date=September 16, 1990 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |agency=Associated Press }}</ref>
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| style="text-align: left;" | —State Senator [[Roger Bedford Jr.|Roger Bedford]] at the unveiling of a state historic marker to the victims. September 15, 1990
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* Following the bombing, the 16th Street Baptist Church remained closed for over eight months, as assessments and, later, repairs were conducted upon the property. Both the church and the bereaved families received an estimated $23,000 {{USDCY|23000|1963}} in cash donations from members of the public.<ref name="crimes and trials"/> Gifts totalling over $186,000 {{USDCY|186000|1963}} were donated from around the world. The church reopened to members of the public on June 7, 1964, and continues to remain an active place of worship today, with an average weekly attendance of nearly 2,000 worshippers. {{as of|May 2019}}, the pastor of the church is the Reverend Arthur Price Jr.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://16thstreetbaptist.org/team-page/ |title=Our Ministry Team |website=16thstreetbaptist.org |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528113618/https://16thstreetbaptist.org/team-page/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* The most seriously injured survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Sarah Jean Collins, remained hospitalized for more than two months<ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/14/us/birmingham-church-bombing-anniversary-victims-siblings/ |work=[[CNN]] |date=September 14, 2013 |title=Siblings of the bombing: Remembering Birmingham church blast 50 years on |first=Jessica |last=Ravitz |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref> following the bombing. Collins' injuries were so extensive that medical personnel did initially fear she would lose the sight in both eyes, although, by October, they were able to inform Collins she would regain the sight in her left eye.<ref name="darkness">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=clMvAAAAIBAJ&pg=2465,4212807 |title=Girl Living in Darkness After Church Bombing |work=[[Argus-Press|The Owosso Argus-Press]] |date=October 16, 1963 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |agency=Associated Press |first=Jim |last=Purks }}</ref> When asked her feelings towards the bombers on October 15, 1963, Collins first thanked those who had cared for her and sent messages of condolence, flowers and toys, then said: "As for the bomber, people are praying for him. We wonder what he would be thinking today if he had children ... He will face God. We turn this problem over to God because no one else can solve Birmingham's problems. We leave it up to God to solve them."<ref name="darkness"/>
* [[Charles Morgan Jr.]], the young white lawyer who had delivered an impassioned speech on September 16, 1963, deploring the tolerance and complacency of much of the white population of Birmingham towards the suppression and intimidation of blacks—thereby contributing to the climate of hatred in the city—himself received death threats directed against him and his family in the days following his speech. Within three months, Morgan and his family were forced to flee Birmingham.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1964/04/26/page/298/article/a-time-to-speak |title=A Time to Speak |url-access=subscription |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=April 26, 1964 }}</ref><ref name=cohen />
* [[James Bevel]], a prominent figure within the Civil Rights Movement and organizer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was galvanized to create what became known as the Alabama Project for Voting Rights as a direct result of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing. Following the bombing, Bevel and his then-wife, [[Diane Nash|Diane]], relocated to Alabama,<ref>{{cite book |title=Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement |page=401 |isbn=9780810860643 |first=Christopher M. |last=Richardson |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CafcAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA401 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |date=June 11, 2014 }}</ref> where they tirelessly worked upon the Alabama Project for Voting Rights, which aimed to extend full voting rights for all eligible citizens of Alabama regardless of race. This initiative subsequently contributed to the 1965 [[Selma to Montgomery marches]], which themselves resulted in the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], thus prohibiting any form of racial discrimination within the process of voting.
* [[Image:Stained glass window at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.jpg|thumb|right|180px|The ''[[Wales|Welsh]] Window''. Designed by artist [[John Petts (artist)|John Petts]], the stained-glass window depicts a [[Race of Jesus#African|Black Christ]] with his arms outstretched; his right arm pushing away hatred and injustice, the left extended in an offering of forgiveness.<ref name=welsh>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12692760 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=March 10, 2011 |first=Neil |last=Prior |access-date=May 28, 2019 |title=Alabama church bombing victims honoured by Welsh window }}</ref>]] Within the 16th Street Baptist Church, there still stands the ''[[Wales|Welsh]] Window''. Sculpted by [[Carmarthenshire]]-based artist [[John Petts (artist)|John Petts]], who had initiated a campaign in [[Wales]] to raise money to fund a replacement stained-glass window which had been destroyed in the bombing. Petts had opted to construct a stained-glass image of a [[Race of Jesus#African|Black Christ]] to replace one of the windows destroyed in the bombing.<ref name=welsh />
* Within two days of the church bombing, Petts had contacted then-pastor of the church, the Reverend John Cross, announcing he had launched a fundraising campaign to create this artwork via an appeal conducted through the ''[[Western Mail (Wales)|Western Mail]],'' requesting funds from the Welsh public to pay for the construction of the structure in Wales, and its delivery and installation at the 16th Street Baptist Church.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SxcfAAAAIBAJ&pg=7271,2571972 |work=[[Tuscaloosa News]] |date=September 19, 1963 |title=Welsh Launch Bombing Fund |access-date=May 28, 2019 |agency=Associated Press }}</ref>
* John Petts died in 1991 at the age of 77. In a 1987 interview focusing upon his recollections of the bombing, Petts recollected: "Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the deaths of those children." Petts then elaborated that the inspiration for the stained-glass image was a verse from the [[Gospel of Matthew]]: "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."<ref name=younge>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/mar/06/racist-attack-alabama-1963-gary-younge |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=March 6, 2011 |title=American civil rights: the Welsh connection |first=Gary |last=Younge |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref> The ''Welsh Window'' bears the inscription, "Given by The People of Wales".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z5zxv |title=The Wales Window of Alabama |work=BBC Radio 4 |first=Gary |last=Younge |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref>
* On the 27th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, a state historic marker was unveiled at Greenwood Cemetery, the final resting place of three of the four victims of the bombing (Carole Robertson's body had been reburied in Greenwood Cemetery in 1974, following the death of her father). Several dozen people were present at the unveiling, presided over by state Senator [[Roger Bedford Jr.|Roger Bedford]]. At the service, the four girls were described as martyrs who "died so freedom could live".<ref name="Gadsden Times Sept. 16, 1990"/>
* Herman Frank Cash died of cancer in February 1994. He was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing and did maintain his innocence. Although Cash is known to have passed a polygraph test in which he was questioned as to his potential involvement in the bombing,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.al.com/specialreport/?bombing/97-spares.html |work=[[AL.com]] |date=September 7, 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080526074834/http://www.al.com/specialreport/?bombing%2F97-spares.html |archive-date=May 26, 2008 |title=Death spares scrutiny of Cash in bomb probe |first1=John |last1=Archibald |first2=Jeff |last2=Hansen |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref> the FBI had concluded in May 1965 that Cash was one of the four conspirators.<ref name=painful/> Cash is interred at Northview Cemetery in [[Polk County, Georgia]].
* The Reverend John Cross, who had been the pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church at the time of the 1963 bombing, died of natural causes on November 15, 2007. He was 82 years old. The Reverend Cross is interred at Hillandale Memorial Gardens in [[DeKalb County, Georgia]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dfEeAAAAIBAJ&pg=3414,5167785 |title=Pastor Was At Church When Bomb Killed Four |work=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] |date=November 19, 2007 |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref>
* Former Secretary of State [[Condoleezza Rice]] was eight years old at the time of the bombing and both a classmate and friend of Carol Denise McNair. On the day of the bombing, Rice was at her father's church, located a few blocks from the 16th Street Baptist Church. In 2004, Rice recalled her memories of the bombing: <blockquote>I remembered the bombing of that Sunday School at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. I did not see it happen, but I heard it happen and I felt it happen, just a few blocks away at my father's church. It is a sound that I will never forget, that will forever reverberate in my ears. That bomb took the lives of four young girls, including my friend and playmate [Carol] Denise McNair. The crime was calculated, not random. It was meant to suck the hope out of young lives, bury their aspirations, and ensure that old fears would be propelled forward into the next generation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.weeklystandard.com/scott-w-johnson/birminghams-new-legacy |title=Birmingham's New Legacy |work=The Weekly Standard |first=Scott W. |last=Johnson |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref></blockquote>
* On May 24, 2013, President [[Barack Obama]] awarded a posthumous [[Congressional Gold Medal]] to the four girls killed in the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing. This medal was awarded through signing into effect [[Public Law 113–11]];<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-113publ11/html/PLAW-113publ11.htm |work=[[United States Government Publishing Office]] |access-date=May 28, 2019 |title=Public Law 113-11 |quote=An Act To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley to commemorate the lives they lost 50 years ago in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where these 4 little black girls' ultimate sacrifice served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.}}</ref> a bill which awarded one Congressional Gold Medal to be created in recognition of the fact the girls' deaths served as a major catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, and invigorated a momentum ensuring the signing into passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<ref name=360summary>{{cite web|title=H.R. 360 – Summary|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/360 |website=congress.gov |publisher=United States Congress |access-date=30 May 2013 |date=May 24, 2013 }}</ref> The gold medal was presented to the [[Birmingham Civil Rights Institute]] to display or loan to other museums.<ref name="360summary"/>
[[File:Terri Sewell and 4 Little Girls - 2019.jpg|216px|thumb|Politician [[Terri Sewell]], with actresses from the play ''4 Little Girls'', pictured upon the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church (2019)]]