[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 148 (Wednesday, September 13, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H4270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 16TH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH 
                                BOMBING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Alabama (Ms. Sewell) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SEWELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 60th 
anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 
Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, and to honor the lives and legacies of 
four little girls killed in this heinous attack.
  Mr. Speaker, 60 years after parishioners of the 16th Street Baptist 
Church prepared for Sunday service, 19 sticks of dynamite placed by Ku 
Klux Klan members exploded. As the interiors of the walls of the church 
caved in, over 100 churchgoers rushed for safety.
  Though most of the congregation escaped, under the debris lay the 
bodies of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and 
Cynthia Morris Wesley, as well as Sarah Collins Rudolph, who was 
injured but ultimately survived.
  Tragically, the brutality did not stop after the bombing. When 
African-American communities across the State of Alabama took to the 
streets to demand justice, they were met with unspeakable violence at 
the hands of law enforcement. Within a few hours, Johnny Robertson and 
Virgil Ware, ages 16 and 13, were killed in a clash between protesters 
and the police.
  Despite the horrific nature of this attack, it took over 34 years 
before the perpetrators faced justice.
  In 2013, Mr. Speaker, I was honored that the very first bill I passed 
in this body awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian 
honor we can give, to the four little girls posthumously to ensure that 
their lives were never forgotten.
  While we will never recover the lives lost or the injuries suffered, 
we know that their sacrifice was not in vain.
  Indeed, the loss of the four little girls changed America forever, 
bringing into clarity our Nation's storied history of racially 
motivated violence, and galvanized the civil rights movement.
  It was their memory that inspired generations of freedom fighters to 
build for a world where the color of your skin does not determine the 
value of your life.
  It was their memory that burned in the minds of foot soldiers as they 
fought to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act 
of 1965.
  It was their sacrifice that brought our Nation closer to realizing 
its highest ideals of equality and justice for all.
  Without the influence of the four little girls, I not only question 
where America would be, but where I would be.
  Mr. Speaker, 60 years after their passing, I get to walk the Halls of 
Congress as Alabama's as first Black Congresswoman, and I do so because 
of their sacrifice and because they cannot.
  Their premature and senseless death serves as a constant reminder 
that every battle and every gain in the fight for civil rights has come 
at a high cost, paid for by the sacrifice of others.
  Yet, despite their gains and our gains as a Nation, we know that our 
work is far from over. Today, as extremists seek to rewrite our history 
and roll back our progress, it has never been more crucial to ensure 
that the legacy of the four little girls lives on in American history.
  After all, those who don't learn from their history are doomed to 
repeat it.

                              {time}  1015

  In the words of Coretta Scott King, struggle is a never-ending 
process. Freedom is never really won. It is earned and won in every 
generation.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the lives of the four 
little girls and remembering them by name: Addie Mae Collins, Denise 
McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Morris Wesley.

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