Topics: Civil Rights, Day of Service, Four Little Girls, Martin Luther King, The Price
President Obama has signed a bill that awards the Congressional Medal of Honor to the four little girls killed in the 1963 KKK bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL.
The girls – Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair – were killed on Sunday morning when members of the Klan planted dynamite in the Church’s basement.
Their deaths shocked the nation and the world, and stands as one of the most violent, horrific events of the Civil Rights Movement. Info and Image Source: Black Youth Project
By 1963, homemade bombs set off in Birmingham's black homes and churches were such common occurrences that the city had earned the nickname "Bombingham."
In the spirit of a "Day of Service," I served meals to the homeless at Beulah Baptist Church in Poughkeepsie, NY with my brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi this past Saturday. We fed over 200 persons (estimated) in assembly line fashion: chicken, rice, green beans, bread and a dessert. It was a multi-ethnic group, and included many families. For the most part, they went for the meals only. It was personally rewarding (though tiring), as I will be working through the morning and evening on the official holiday today.
This occurred September 16, 1963, a day after my mother's 38th birthday. I would have been a year and a month old; a month from the missiles of October's anniversary (we had teetered on the precipice of Armageddon - that was almost 10 months shy of my ONLY year); President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas the very next month. The times probably worried her, I'm sure.
We tend to forget the price paid by those who in an instance found themselves on the front lines of a battle for fairness over supremacy; freedom over de facto slavery via Jim Crow.
We tend to forget that soldiers aren't muscled, mighty men. Sometimes, they can be four beautiful little girls in the safest place they could possibly think to be - in their house of worship.
We also tend to forget that icons like Dr. Martin Luther King we admire now was vilified by some of his own - culture and clergy - and the extreme right of the time wore white sheets instead of (now) Armani, pin stripes and Prada.
We also forget in living rooms of complacency, flat screens, MMORPGs and comfortable backsides, only interrupted by the occasional level of violence that used to be so...commonplace, that sadly perhaps is becoming so again. It need not be someone you know to act on the behalf of others. Being human, compassionate and common decency should be more than enough.
May today be a Day of Service for you as you see fit to express it.
I will resume posting 1 Feb 2015.
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