Remember, Reflect, Recommit: 16th Street Baptist Church Commemorates Anniversary of 1963 Bombing, Opens Education Center

By Javacia Harris Bowser | The Birmingham Times

Sixty-three years after the tragic bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church claimed the lives of four young girls — Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley — the church’s leaders are honoring lives lost in the city’s dark past while also forging a path for a brighter future.

On Tuesday, September 15, the church commemorated the 63rd anniversary of the 1963 bombing through its annual memorial service. This year’s service featured nationally acclaimed lawyer, educator, and advocate Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, as the keynote speaker.

But the day also marked the grand opening of the new 16th Street Baptist Church Education & Visitor Center. Together, the observance and center opening usher in a new chapter in the church’s ongoing mission and ministry, connecting the lessons of the past to the responsibilities of today and tomorrow.

“We continue to commemorate because of those four precious lives that were lost on that day, because it was the impetus to the Civil Rights Act of ’64, and the Civil Rights Act of ’64 was the impetus to the ’65 Voting Rights Act,” the Rev. Arthur Price Jr., pastor of 16th Street Baptist Church, told the Birmingham Times. “We remember September 15 because of the impact that it made in this country and around the world.”

Elected officials, community leaders, and everyday residents filled the pews of 16th Street Baptist Church for Tuesday morning’s service. Though the mood was somber, the sanctuary seemed marked not by sorrow but by hope, as the Carlton Reese Memorial Unity Choir sang uplifting hymns of power and praise.

The Spirit of a Child

In his remarks, Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin declared that “it is our continued civic and moral obligation to hold on to the spirit of a child, the wide-eyed optimism, the boldness, the enduring hope.”

Woodfin went on to say, “Church, I can tell you, as a father, when I look into the eyes of my little girl, I see something we sometimes lose as adults. They’re fearless. They don’t believe in an impossible, and I believe that is part of the lesson those four little girls left the city of Birmingham.”

Woodfin said that “no matter the legislation designed to keep people down, no matter the violence perpetrated against our people,” we must dare to believe in a better Birmingham and a better world.

“Don’t let the signs of the obstacle determine the size of our dreams,” he said.

When Stevenson took to the pulpit, he echoed these remarks. After sharing a heartwarming story about how the memory of his grandmother’s embrace gets him through the hardest of times, Stevenson said, “I tell you that story because I’m standing here at 16th Baptist Church, and I believe this morning we should let the spirit of these children embrace us.”

The Greatest Americans

Stevenson’s memorial address tackled the tough questions that many Black Americans have grappled with: “I’m going to be honest about the fact that I’ve, throughout many parts of my life, questioned my identity as an American,” he confessed. “I worried and wondered, do I belong? Is this really where my home is?”

And as dark as history may be, it is the past that reminds him what it truly means to be a great American.

The four million Black people who were emancipated after the Civil War and chose not retribution and revenge but instead decided to build schools, churches, and families.  The Black women and girls who refused to give up their seats on the bus and sparked the boycotts that brought about change. The members of 16^th Street Baptist Church who didn’t turn to violence and hate after the 1963 bombing.

“These are some of the greatest people in American history,” Stevenson said. “I’ve decided today I’m going to commit myself to greatness, and by greatness I don’t mean getting wealth or power and status. By greatness, I mean I’m going to commit myself to an era of truth, justice, peace.”

Commitment and Community

Just as Stevenson urged everyone to commit to greatness, the new 16^th Street Baptist Church Education & Visitor Center asks everyone who steps through its doors to commit, too.

“I think the Education and Visitors Center will be a catalyst of change because it gives people an opportunity to remember, reflect, and recommit to some of the principles of the civil rights movement,” Rev. Price said. After touring the nearby Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Kelly Ingram Park and after spending time next door at the church, Price wants out-of-town visitors and residents alike to come to the center to consider what’s next.

“We don’t just want you to have a history lesson,” he said. “We want you to do something with that history lesson.”

Those visiting the new center will be struck by two prominent features as soon as they enter the building. The Four Circles of Light are four ring-shaped fixtures that hang above the center’s multipurpose room, one for each of the four girls lost in the bombing, as a reminder that their memories continue to light the path to justice. And then there’s the River Wall, digital panels that resemble both blue stained glass and flowing water and display scriptures and commitments visitors can make before they leave.

For Dr. Terrence Brown, executive director of the Education & Visitor Center, the center is about community.

“We’re projecting 25,000 people to come and take a tour this year, and we’re very close to that mark, but what we realize is that people come in, they have this experience, and then they leave and they just scatter,” Brown said. The Center seeks to change this. Brown believes the key to lasting impact is bringing people together, breaking down social barriers and reinforcing the idea that people share more in common than they do not.

The Center aims to help visitors form connections through shared meals and collaborative art experiences like quilting and singing. Future programming may include book studies, virtual speaker series, film screenings, and panel discussions connecting civil rights history to current issues.

“We also want to spark imagination,” Brown said. “What happens if we really begin to create a vision of what Birmingham could be, or what Alabama could be, and now begin to coalesce people together around that vision.”

For more on the 16th Street Baptist Church Education & Visitor Center, visit 16thstreetevcenter.com.