Today marks 60 years after the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
Columnist Karim Shamsi-Basha says he always think of the vast difference between Alabama and New Jersey when he visits the Southern state. Above in this file photo firefighters and ambulance attendants remove a covered body from the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., on Sept. 15, 1963, after a deadly explosion detonated by members of the Ku Klux Klan during services. I just returned from a visit to Alabama, my home for three decades before moving to New Jersey last May.
The explosion resulted in the death of four little girls: 11-year-old Denise McNair, along with 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins. Nearly two dozen others were injured. The KKK, Ku Klux Klan, planted the bombs. Now decades later, the church has been rebuilt, and the stained glass that shattered that day has been repaired. What has not healed is the grief in the hearts of those who knew the four little girls, or anyone who calls themselves a human being.Having lived as a journalist in Birmingham for 30 years, I covered many events at the 16th Street Baptist Church. I always gazed at the spot where the bomb was planted, marked with a small memorial sign, and I would hold my tears.
Did those KKK monsters know our different skin colors are the result of how the sun has hit our planet for billions of years? That’s it. It means nothing. We are all the same human beings on this tiny ball, hurtling through space according to organized chaos congruent with a random order. Yet, the difference in skin color caused death on that day in Birmingham.Perhaps. Last week, while I was in Birmingham, I rode with a friend to lunch. We had known each other for 20 years.
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