[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 23, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               50TH ANNIVERSARY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

  (Ms. SEWELL of Alabama asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 50th 
commemoration of the city of Birmingham's pivotal role in the civil 
rights movement. We are declaring 2013 as the Year of Birmingham in 
order to honor the historic events that occurred in our city in 1963. 
The city of Birmingham serves as a reminder to the rest of the world 
that, out of despair, there is hope and that justice does, indeed, 
prevail.
  My good friend Congressman Spencer Bachus and I, along with the 
entire Alabama delegation, plan to ask this august body to bestow, on a 
bipartisan basis, its highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold 
Medal, to the four little girls who tragically lost their lives during 
the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. We believe it is 
befitting that during this year, 2013, we posthumously pay tribute to 
Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair, 
for they have truly paid the ultimate sacrifice.
  They are, indeed, emblematic of so many citizens of Birmingham who 
lost their lives for the cause of freedom. They represent all of those 
citizens and all of those who fought so hard and courageously, black 
and white, to make sure that we in this Nation hold up its ideals of 
equality for all.
  I ask that this august body work with Spencer Bachus and the entire 
Alabama delegation to bipartisanly support and bestow upon them the 
Congressional Medal of Honor.

                          ____________________