Resource Roundup - Sixteenth Street Church Bombing
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama
Crossposted from the TPS Teacher Network
This morning I was scanning through social media and saw a number of folks reacting to this piece by Kevin Kruse - "Who's Really Guilty?" - focused on the 60th anniversary of the Sixteenth Baptist Church in Birmingham. This is one of those moments in history that I am familiar with but not in any comprehensive or complete way. As I read, I was struck, once again, about how little ‘we’ know or think we know about a subject. That heinous day in 1963 did kill those four girls - but there were so many lives shattered and altered on that day, the way people reacted, the connected violence throughout the day. At the end of the piece there is a video of Charles Morgan’s speech, A Time to Speak that he delivered on September 16th, 1963. It is hard to listen to and not hear the echoes of the same issues that plagued 1963 still hanging on in 2023.
LOC Resources for Further Investigation
Fred Stewart and Tyler Collins / Dawoud Bey. and Mathes Manafree and Cassandra Griffin / Dawoud Bey.
These resources didn’t have a ton of detail listed but I was curious, so I sought out the original work. It is a fascinating concept and I could imagine would spark a number of classroom conversations.
Dawoud Bey's Poignant "The Birmingham Project" on View at National Gallery of Art, September 12, 2018, through April 22, 2019
Not an easy photo to use as it is small and not able to be made larger, which led me to think, what else was in the news about this bombing so I went to Chronicling America - I used the victims’ names to narrow the search
Several articles on this first edition after the bombing. Summary of the bombing, Presidential response and an article interviewing the pastor of Sixteenth Street.
Later in the same edition - Evening star. [volume], September 16, 1963, Page A-7, Image 7
There is a ton happening on that page and could be used as a serious window into life in 1963… polio, desegregation, bombings, leaders not following the law, presidential campaign, dedication of a jail as a Mormon Shrine.
There are three separate pieces on this front page detailing different aspects of the coverage - A review of action taking place in Alabama, a protest at the White House and an essay from the editor of the Atlanta Constitution titled A Flower for the Graves.
Coverage of the funerals, Funeral Fails to Close Void and note the article at the bottom of the page, Church Ends Belair Bid, Blames Racial Policy.
An editorial bit from David Lawrence titled Kennedy Should Have Day of Mourning for White as well as Negro Victims of Racial Disturbances - There a lot to unpack in that piece, but again, you hear echoes of it today as well.
The article adjacent, again an interesting peek into the time… Idea that Sixth Grade Education if Proof of Literacy is Nonsense - it didn’t do where I thought the title implied.
Other Newspaper accounts
Jackson Advocate on Sept. 28, 1963 - article related to request for federal troops
Similar topic in the Minneapolis Spokesman on Sept. 19, 1963 - NAACP, Negro Leaders Urge US Martial Law in Birmingham
And possibly the most direct opening of an article from the Lexington Advertiser on Sept. 19, 1963 - Church Bombing in Birmingham - begins, “There must be a special place in hell for anyone who bombs a church.”
A number of legislative actions to recognize for four of the victims
Questions to pursue with this content
Can you hear similar rhetoric today in America?
Is there an equivalent to this violence today?
What was unexpected in the newspaper articles?
What questions do you have about Alabama in 1963?
What is happening today in Birmingham?
What do the survivors of the bombing have to say about the world today?
What could we have done or learned from the heinous act - that might have impacted our word for the better, today? Why didn’t we do it or learn it?
