It was a world both recent and foreign. As newspapers hemmed and hawed. As politicians urged defiance of the courts. As preachers twisted words in the Bible to justify discrimination.
for Black and white people to play checkers or dominoes together. Or basketball or football or pool or just about anything else. No lunch together. No gathering together. No meeting together and damn sure no dating or marriage.
Two worlds. Alabama leaders – and a whole lot of people who supported them – would blow up those worlds to keep them from colliding.poured cement into holes on golf courses rather than to allow integration. They shut down public pools rather than let Black people swim in them. Gov. George Wallace had schools surrounded to prevent court-ordered integration. Birmingham Police Commissioner Bull Connor looked the other way as Freedom Riders were beaten at a Birmingham bus station.And four young, innocent ladies were killed. Sarah Collins – now Sarah Collins Rudolph – suffered for decades. Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson died.As preachers twisted words from the Bible to justify discrimination. As Sunday school children at white churches sang “Jesus loves the little children … red and yellow, black and white,” while ushers stood guard to make sure sanctuaries were for whites only.famously called out the silent and the complicit , the people who stood by and accepted the status quo, the overtly racist and those too timid or distracted or speak. “Every person in this community who has in any way contributed during the past several years to the popularity of hatred, is at least as guilty, or more so, than the demented fool who threw that bomb,” he said. Of course the martyrdom of those young people 60 years ago helped to change the world. The protest and violent response in Birmingham and later Selma helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, which made so many of these everyday atrocities seem like ancient history. But it wasn’t so long ago. You can see that past more clearly every day, as politicians and school boards try to hide it. Alabama has helped decimate the Voting Rights Act, and Attorney General Steve Marshall and Secretary of State Wes AllenAlabama politicians continue to push bills to ban “divisive concepts,” and many teachers are made to feel uncomfortable talking about the past. A couple of years ago Alabama’s school board, led by Gov. Kay Ivey,– lest we make white people feel guilt or anguish – that chills the study of our racial history, and the horrors the state condoned. Which all sounds very much like a past they are trying to hide. And a future we are doomed to relive. So stop, at 10:22 this morning. Remember. Imagine. Not just what happened then, but your role in this moment. And in our future.The face of Jesus was blown out in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963. Many find symbolism there. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. By browsing this site, we may share your information with our social media partners in accordance with our
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