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^~\ BOMB KILLS FOUR GIRLS City's blackest day ' At the time, just four days Rev. John H. Cross, pastor the church basement were Ware of Sandusky was shot Local and state police join­ after the brutal bomb blast of Sixteenth Street during killed immediately and 23 and killed by two young ed FBI agents in what law had killed four girls at Sun­ 1963, recalled , after the others in the church were white boys who drove by on enforcement officials describ­ day School, neither Birming­ deaths that since spring that injured. a motorscooter. ed as one of the most ham's shocked but embattled year, when the church be­ The explosion hurled massive investigations ever" \ whites nor its agonized and came a headquarters for chunks of concrete and twist­ THE INJURED included in America. angry blacks were prepared civil rights demonstrations, ed metal against nearby white people caught in the to accept the message. he had received a half-dozen buildings. The street and angry black aftermath — a In May 1964, the Saturday *But Dr. Martin Luther bomb threats. They always sidewalks were covered with honeymooning bride driving Evening Post reported that iQS»ijEacin£_^smaJl_ white- ^came ja_anJuionyrnous rnale_ -piaces-oLshatterecL-glass.i— . -•with her~husband throwgh-ih©- FBI '* officials eknew who: bombed the church but didn't coffins and thousands of voice. As ambulances screamed city, a young white boy hit have enough evidence ;. to emotional mourners at a to the scene, police roped off on the head with a brick. "We've searched the convict him. '" -. funeral service for three of church several times," Cross the area, holding back a' The night that followed the the victims, voiced a thought said. "We've called off night­ "Mister X," the magazine. that then, even for him, may time . meetings because we ' ' said, helped plan the bomb­ have been more comfort than felt it would just be too ing at a meeting in Birming-' real belief. dangerous to gather, even if ham two weeks before it only to pray." happened, was at the house * FINDING MEANING in "We haven't underestimat­ ". . . that day of death and v£ Che two men who planned ,the wanton murders, King ed the extremists. We've despair was a turning place, the the bomb two nights before said: known right along there were the blast, and his car was •' "(The girls' deaths) may people in this town capable point at which both black and white parked two blocks from the well serve as the redemptive of anything. Even this." citizens knew they must start the church on the Sunday morn­ Iforce that brings light to this ing of the bombing. 'dark city . . . (They) may ON SUNDAY, Sept. 8, torturous journey toward respect ;cause the white South to there were two warnings. and fairness." LAW ENFORCEMENT: .come to terms with its con­ "This church is going to be officials reacted for the most science." blown up," a telephoned part with "no comment." I Eight years later, King's voice said. In November 1964, the FBI, ^hope for history seems But on Sunday, Sept. 15, a ' * responding to charges that it ^prophetic. , chilly, gray morning, there crowd, of stunned, angry church bombing was one of hadn't done its best to find Sept. 15, 1963 was Birming- was no warning, no threat. Negroes. sporadic violence — rock- the bombers, issued a state- Jham's blackest day. When About 200 men, women and Negro Civil Defense work­ throwing, firebombing, crack­• ment saying that a "small iCynthia, Carol, Addie Mae children came to Sunday ers plead over loudspeakers: ling gunfire. group of Klansmen" were "and Denise died, so did a School at Sixteenth Street to "We are a nonviolent peo­ The days that followed believed to be responsible 'large part of the city's hope study a lesson titled "The ple." were ones of outrage, grief, but that there was insuffi­ 'and spirit. Love That Forgives." and pleas for peace — na­ cient evidence to make any »' But as King hoped, that Cynthia Wesley and Carol A CAR OF WHITES drove tionally and locally. arrests. ! day of death and despair was Robertson, both 14, were on near the church provocative­ Birmingham Mayor Albert At the same time, the FBI • '•a turning place, the point at the Youth Board of Ushers. ly displaying a Confederate Boutwell cried when he said the bombing investiga­ »which both black and white Addie Mae Collins, 14, and flag until police, insisted it be heard the news and expres­ tion "was prejudiced by / citizens knew they must start Denise McNair, 11, were to removed. sed his bewilderment: "I premature arrests made by "„ the torturous journey toward have sung in the youth choir, never could conceive that the Highway J respect and fairness. that day. Within a few hours two anyone existed with such Patrol. Consequently, it has * '},.• •:'.';•" • But the lesson was never Negro boys were shot to universal malice." not been possible to obtain % IN THE YEARS leading to finished, and the choir did death and three other per­ evidence or confessions to " the deaths at Sixteenth Street. not sing. sons were wounded. IN THE YEARS since the assure successful prosecu­ ', Baptist Church, bombings in Police said James Robin­ bombing, bridges have been tion." ''.''.' /•: J Birmingham had become SOMEONE HAD PUT 10 son, 16, was killed when they built across the chasm be­ •j frighteningly' familiar. From sticks of dynamite in a bomb hit him with shotgun fiw tween whites and blacks in Birmingham. * 1947 through 1963 there were 'under a stair at the side of after shooting at the feet of Downtown* East, i 41 blasts — none of them the church. The blast went young rock-throwing Negroep But one fact still rankles. ! until the church causing fatal- off, stopping the church in an attempt to quell None has ever been arrest­ l ities, none of the bombers clock at 10:22. disorders near the church. I ed and charged with the •; brought to trial. The four girls who were in T h i r t e en-year-old Virgp bombing. ? I J>~ "V? The WALES WINDOW ^ The Wales stained glass window is a gift to the *Q) Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, PIACE "$-— Ala., from the people of Wales. It replaced the STAMP — - window that was broken during the bombing. n v.A In an effort to express sympathy and concern, HERE the people of Wales raised funds and procured z the services of an artist who did the painting. n Go <=o - -t n POST CARD - > Address TO n 8 O j

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THE WALES WINDOW FOR BIRMINGHAM

On September 17, 1963, two days after the tragic bombing of this church, the Western Mail , a newspaper published in Cardiff, Wales, launched a fundraiser to receive donations in order to secure a stained glass window. The internationally acclaimed artist, Mr. John Petts, was asked to design the window. Upon visiting Birmingham in March, 1964, Mr. Petts returned to his studio-workshop with the intention of designing a window symbolizing the nine Beatitudes. In the background of the panoramic colors would be doves and the rainbow and "the city upon a hill, which cannot be hid." Mr . Petts spoke of a restlessness in his mind when contemplating the design of the window. In his words: "This designed seemed right; it had meaning; it was lonely to look at in terms of shape and colour. Why then was I irked and dissatisfied?" he queried. "Simply, I realized that it was not strong enough, it was a soft option, did not go directly to the heart of the matter; that, in its particular and poignant context, as a thing of beauty it was not enough," he concluded. A new, more powerful theme surfaced in his mind. Taking a sheet of paper into his hands, he sketched what was in his mind. Reading from a letter written to the Rev. John Cross, then pastor of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and the congregation, and dated May 28, 1965, Mr. Petts explained his artistic, yet spiritual, concept of the window in a letter dated 28 May 1965.

A further word on the window. The great idea it seeks to express is the identification of Christ and Everyman. In the face of the huge world problem of intolerance, the denial of human rights, hatred, violence of man against man, colour-bars and segregation, the simple words of Christ stand out: 'You Do It to ME...!' The arrow and the bar of the Cross stands for the Spear in the Side, all violence and suffering. Surely the core of Christ's message is what each man does to his neighbour, and the answer to the question 'Who is my neighbour?'

Perhaps you will be asked about the significance of the large hands of the figure in the window. They are emphasized in this way to express strongly the meaning of the crucified gesture of the wide figure. One hand is strong in protest, the other is wide in acceptance and love. The Rainbow, forming a nimbus,^is the Light of the Word, and the unity of all colours, and God's Promise and Covenant. The background colours of rich blues and purples symbolise suffering and hope. Blue, as you will know, traditionally stands for divine contemplation, love of divine works, piety, sincerity, loyalty, fidelity, faith, humility and expiation. It signifies also eternity and immortality.

WALES WINDOW FOR ALABAMA, PAGE TWO

I would like at this time to send a message to you all: OUR DEEPLY-FELT WISH THAT THIS WINDOW WILL STAND IN YOUR CHURCH FOR MANY YEARS TO COME, ITS COLOURS SHINING WITH THE GLORY OF THE GREAT SIMPLE TRUTH WHICH MUST PREVAIL: THAT ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS, AND THAT GOD IS LOVE.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is honored to have a small, but impressive part of Mr. John Petts and the people of Wales in its sanctuary. Mr. Petts, after being ill for several months, died August 1991. f[5\5^ B—S1XTIEN ?HJ»70 - t v e>s THE B'R.MINSHAM NIWS SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 195. / workshop is planned for high school 1953" is crowned. The Wenonah tation will be made by the Hon. of the National Council of Negro What Negroes are doing— seniors and Miles College freshmen. school is represented by Mrs. Clark, Lawrence H. Lightner, Supreme Women. Consultants, with students, will and the Birmingham school by Mrs. Mary Streeter. Commander of the American Wood­ A native of Anniston, Ala., Mrs; discuss opportunities, training and men of Denver, Colo. Accepting the Maize is a graduate of Spelman'' requirements in each vocation. The Mrs. Exie Hicks, president, pre­ flag will be Prof. John Reese. College in Atlanta, and holds a mas-^ notes 80th anniversary theme for the occasion is "Avenues sided at the meeting. Mrs. Jose­ ter's degree in social administration Baptist to Successful Vocations." phine Parrish is reporter. sary sermon at 3 p.m. He will be from North, East and West Ala­ MRS. NAOMAH W. Maize, for­ from Western Reserve University,/ BY MATTIE B. ROWE acclaim of audiences and critics Literature on vocations and voca­ mer director of the Friendly Inn Cleveland. She has studied at the \ Several candidates will be bap­ alike wherever he has appeared. In introduced by Dr. J. L. Ware, min­ bama sections. The program starts tional information will be distrib­ PLANS FOR Founders Day will ister of the Trinity Baptist Church at 2 p.m. be completed by the Spelman Club Settlement in Cleveland, Ohio, has Julliard School of Music and at the tized Easter Sunday at the 11 a.m. the concert this Sunday evening he uted. been appointed executive director Bennington School of Arts. services .at the Sixteenth Street will perform- at the organ, piano and president of the Baptist Min­ Welcome will be given by Deacon Registration will be in the lobby when it meets Tuesday, April 7, at Baptist Church. This service and and accordion. isters Conference. F. L. Madison and Mrs. I. P. Clarke. of the main building from 9 to 9:30 the YWCA at 7 p.m. others during the month of April Following the concert the artist At 11 a.m. the assistant pastor, Sir Samuel S. Terry is chancel­ a.m. High school seniors who are Mrs. Margaret B. Little, president, Downtown Stores Open Monday Night Til 8:30 will be broadcast by WEDR. will be given a reception at the the Rev. B. Bush, will preach. lor commander of the host lodge, interested are requested to confer states checks and gifts for the col­ THE GIFT OF A LIFETIME The Rev. Luke Beard said the 18th Street YMCA. Mrs. Virginia Allen will reign as and Mrs. Helen Cooley is worthy with their school principals. lege- rally may be brought or sent month of April has been set aside queen of the day. On Monday, April counselor of St. James Cour;. to the meeting. Concerted effort of for the observance of the 80th an­ STUDENTS FROM eight local 13, the pastor will be honored at a PLANS FOR representation at every Spelman woman will enhance BULOVA niversary of the church, organized high schools will compete in .the reception at 8 p.m. in the church COMING TO. BIRMINGHAM the national and state meetings of the club's gift this last year of the dining room. Sunday, April 12, Dr. Costonie will Licensed Practical Nurses Assn. administration of President Flor­ WITH EXPANSION ' conduct services at the Payne were made when the local unit met ence M. Read. Every graduate and Chapel A. M. E. Church, pastored Wednesday. former student of the college is .75 NAPOLEON LODGE NO. 28 and by the Rev. William Paul Foley. Mrs. Annie Mae White was urged to share this observance. St. James Court No. 291 of Besse­ glected delegate to both the nation­ 29 Choice mer will be hosts Sunday, April 12, TWO KEYNOTE speakers and 16 al board meeting in New York City Beauty of design and to the Pythian-Calanthe Council in MEMBERS OF THE American bined in these Bulov? consultants will feature the Voca­ May. 4, 5 and 6, ind the Alabama Woodmen in the Birmingham area have expansion b-" quarterly meeting at the Antioch tional Guidance Clinic, scheduled State meeting in June. will present a new from our large s' Baptist Church in Bessemer. at Miles College on Saturday, April A popularity contest is on be­ flag to Cameron-Lane School on No Carry!' The Council, with Sir W. A. 18, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. tween the Wenonah and Birming­ Thursday April 16 at 1 p.m. Prof SOUTHS LA' Stover, president, will bring to Bes­ The program previously has been ham schools. The competition ends N. E. Wills is principal of the semer members of the Knights, of offered to elementary pupils and May 29 at 8 p.m. in a program at school. BV Pythias and Courts of Calanthe in-service teachers. This year the the YMCA when "Miss LPN' of The feature address and presen­ S FRIF Open Erery Monday Evening Until &t3r

YWGA residence committee—Left to right, first row: Mrs. Ethel Williams, Mrs. Myrtle-Wright Blissett and Mrs. Lul- line Long; second row, Mrs. Willie Bell Bolden, Mrs. Ludie Brown, Mrs. Rosa Speight; third row, Mrs. Rachel Summons, Mrs. Verdelle Martin, Mrs. Gertie Battle; fourth row, Mrs. Empire Solid Mahogany Suite Reduced! Hettie Gilbert, Mrs. Jesse Avery, Mrs.. Connie Pegues. Mrs. Eva Moore, Mrs. Elouise Mitchell and Mrs. Robbie • $179 Large Chest of Drawer! , $89 • $2 59. Double .Dresser $129 Divers, not shown, are other committee members. The • $139 Tall Poster Bed $69 • $182 Flam'Dresser ...» committee of the Eighth Avenue Branch YWCA is planning • $ 102 Twin or Full-Size Bed $44 • $ 59 Night Tabl a Mothers Day party for mothers over 65 to be held at the This solid mahogany furniture is built by Empire, one of the nation's better manufacturers of "Y" Saturday afternoon, May 9. There will be Rrizes, gifts, ture. We "were lucky to get these pieces at a big reduction. -vJluY^ju.tt the pieces you need food and entertainrhent. , •• <• one-half or more. fS ' - April 20, 1873. This was only two Mrs. Racine Gordon will be guest years after the city of Birmingham soloist. was incorporated. Mr. Jackson has received the high Tlie church school fc&S planned annual Elks oratorical contest next an interesting Easter program. Mrs. Thursday night at the Parker High Mabel Barker Murphy, general su­ School at 7:30 p.m. perintendent, said children under Taking part will be Jeraldine the direction of Mrs. Inez. Perry- Wheeler, Parker High School; man, will take part in the Easter George O'Neal, Wenonah High services. School; David Brown, Westfield The adult feature of the program High; Gwendolyn Johnson, Fair­ will be a playlet, entitled: "The field Industrial High School; Edna Seamless Coat." Participants are Ware, Brighton High; Creola Arm- Miss Joan Watson, J. S. Goodson, stead, Western High; Jessie De- B. H. Wilson and William Ander­ Vaughn, Hooper City High, and son. Miss Jacqueline Kirby is the Lybia Lewis of Dunbar High School. director. Serving on the tabulation com­ Also during the 11 a.m. services, mittee will be Prof. Waymon Math- Mrs. Melvia M. Pate and Sgt. L. L. erson, chairman; William J. Moore, Earls will be married. Mrs. Pate Attorney Oscar W. Adams, W. H. is a member of the church. Sgt. Hollins, Mrs. Ludie Dowdell, An­ Earls is stationed with the U. S. drew Hunter, Attorney Philander Butler, Mrs. Odessa McKinney and Gilbert Emmons. Raymond Rowe will serve as timekeeper. The contest is sponsored by Shades Valley Lodge of Bessemer, Tuxedo Lodge of Fairfield and Jones Valley Lodge of Birming­ ham. Music for this occasion will be under the supervision of Profs. Wil­ liam S. Henry and George Hudson. THE OFFICERS AND members of the i Green Liberty Baptist Church will honor their pastor, Dr. Herbert Ernest Gilvin, with a pro­ gram celebrating his 31st anniver­ sary as pastor, Sunday, April 12. Dr. T. D; Bussey, minister of Tried Stone Baptist Church, and president of Birmingham Baptist College, will deliver the annivej> Honored for service — Dr. H. E. Gilvin. Army at Fort Camp Hood, Texai The Rev. Beard will read the vowf, THE METROPOLITAN Com­ munity Church of Woodlawn, the Rev. Robert W. Hayden, pastor, will worship in the newly completed sanctuary Easter Sunday. The church, at 64th-st and Third-ct, s, will have its first formal services at 11:15 a.m. This service also marks the 15th anniversary. The church was founded on Easter Sunday, 1938. , '. A special twilight service is planned for 6 p.m. THE BIRMINGHAM Council of Negro Women will present a health program at 5 p.m. today at the branch YWCA, Mrs, Lucille Doug­ lass, publicity director, announces. Appearing on the program will be Dr. L. D. Green, physician and civic leader of the city, and Mrs. Stephen Dill, a representative of the Dr. Thomas Spies Nutritutional Clinic of the Jefferson-Hillman Hospital. Mrs. Frances Bomer and other clinical staff members will accompany Mrs. Dill. , Mrs. Fannie DuBois, RN, will pre­ side over the program. i GRAHAM JACKSON, nationally known concert artist; and enter­ tainer, will appear in concert at the Masonic Temple today at 6 p.m. The concert is sponsored by the Bethel Baptist Church, pastored by the Rev. J. F. Davis. The proceeds will go to the liquidation of in­ debtedness on the church organ. mt&t THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS at Negroes are doing— 4-lV5"7 Church celebrates 86th anniversary BY GERALDINE H. MOORE city and county high schools in purchase of a fence for the school THE YOUNG MATRONS of ti The 86th anniversary of the the district Elks oratorical con­ grounds. Macedonia Baptist Church w founding of the Sixteenth Street test at Parker High School. Reyn­ Mrs. Rosa' Woodruff is PTA celebrate their eighth anniver.°- Baptist Church will be observed olds received a $150 cash tuition president.- Leroy Butler is prin­ Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The ^ Sunday at 11 a.m. Norman Ran­ award to be used at the college of cipal. M. Norwood is pastor dall, local civic and religious his choice. He will also enter worker, will speak. . the state contest at Dothan, April THE BAND AND CHOIR of the THE PTA r Randall has been superintend­ 26. ' Fairfield . Industrial High School tary Sc'- ent of the Macedonia Seventeenth The winner was sponsored by will present their annual concert aJ1^ Street Baptist Church school 35 Mrs. Juanita W. Todd.. P. D. Sunday at- 5, p.m. in the scho'-' years. He is vice president of the Jackson is principal of the school. auditorium. Mt. Pilgrim District Sunday School Patricia Ard direc*- and BTU Congress, and a direc BRIGHTON HIGH SCHOOL will Louis Rutland ic ' tor of the Girls Service League.- observe the fourth annual Eng­ J. Oliver -;'' Musical selections will feature lish Emphasis Week with a pano­ Henry Glover, soloist; the Acipco Male Chorus and the church or­ rama of experiences in lanf" chestra. arts Monday through ^ " 'John T. Smith is chairman of hires wJH-*" he program committee. i)u>-i"^'' Sunday, September duw;, (A- CLu.&lL J \C rA Qir i\f,' &^y- : gfr gfettttwsliam MMM A-7 brotherhood. . . In retrospect— . . . Rise up and make her great! Among bomb's echoes, memorial fund is born This is zone thr

Rise up, 0 men of God! ple Emanu-El; J. T. Beale, sec­ and any one killed or injured in Rabbi Milton Graf man of Temple 2. Hospital and burial expenses AND WHAT of tomorrow? Have done with lesser things Have done with lesser things; retary - director, Christian the bombing aftermath. This aid Emanu-El; William H. McKen-'fo r the two people killed and those Birmingham ministers are . . . Bring in the day of Give heart and mind and soul Churches of Alabama; The was to be given without regard zie, vice president and cashier of seriously injured on the same day again expected to urge congrega­ and strength Rev. Thomas A. Edgar, Bir­ to race or creed. Birmingham Trust National Bank; of the bombing aftermath. tions to pray for peace, order, and To serve . . . mingham District Superin­ Bishop Murray contacted and Robert L. Schlinkert, maiy 3. Repairs of the bombed good will. Echoes from She dreadful dyna­ tendent of the North Alabama ministers to serve as trustees ager of WBRC-TV. "t\ church in excess of funds paid Ministers and laymen joining mite bombing of a house of God Methodist Conference; the who would administer contribu­ j by insurance companies: this appeal also seek prayers for one week ago fill the city today. Rev. G. W. McMurry, pastor tions and also attempt to co­ SCHLINKERT, IN AGREEING! 4. Repair of other buildings dam- the official City of Birmingham r It was quiet, that Sunday. Folks of AME Zion Church (repre­ ordinate all fund appeal efforts. to become a trustee said WBRC-jaged by the blast in excess of delegation which meets with the rose early, dressed neatly, drove senting Bishop F. S. Anderson, First named trustees were Bish­ TV had already started a fund insurance President at Washington Mon­ to churches over the city. Deep presiding bishop of the Ninth op C.C.J. Carpenter, Episcopal in an effort to awaken the people 5. Any excess when all needs day. of Birmingham to the need. He bell-songs filled the air. It was Episcopal District, AME Zion Bishop of Alabama. Dr. Denson are met in the judgment of the Prayers are also asked for min­ warm, sunny, peaceful. Church); Franklin pastor of Birmingham's said funds raised by WBRC-TV trustees will be turned over to the would be turned over to trustees.. isters of all faiths who meet with Then it happened. The Rev. Earl- Stallings, pas­ First Methodist Church; Dr. Disaster Fund of the American Mr. Kennedy late Monday after­ A BLAST BROKE the Sabbath tor of Birmingham's First Bap­ John H. Lukens, pastor of In­ Bishop George Murray, who Red Cross. noon. still. Ministers in their pulpits tist Church: the Rev. J. L. Ware, dependent Presbyterian Church; has spearheaded formation of received the I word by note, by president of the Birmingham and Dr. W. Landon Miller, pastor the inter-faith group which sug- ' BISHOP MURRAY said the And could there be a more whispered message. Ministers Conference and presi­ of Ruhama Baptist Church and gested the fund, said: ! Birmingham First National Bank fitting way for men of good will Sixteenth Street Baptist dent of the Interdenominational president of the Ministers' As­ and the here to face the days ahead than "It will be suggested to the' Birmingham Trust Na- in a way proposed by Merrill's Church had been bombed. Ministerial Alliance: the Rev. sociation of Greater Birmingham. trustees when they meet Monday!"011^1 Bank .™% aS'>eed to serve as d slto great hymn; to: Congregations sat stunned in John T. Porter, of Sixth Avenue afternoon that the fund be known! i( «P° ^ for funds. their pews, and prayed: thronged Baptist Church; the Rev. Joseph STEPS WERE THEN taken to as the "Sixteenth Street Baptist! ^11 contributions should be Rise up! 0 men of God! to altars over the city, and Allen of St. Francis Xavier Cath­ add to the trustees a group of Memorial Fund." fent to either of the two banks,' Advertisement prayed; knelt where they stood, olic Church; and Dr. L. H. Pitts, laymen. ( 'Bishop Murray said. and prayed. Some wept openly. president of Miles College. Do at ns ch ecks or casn Robert Fore, vice president of BISHOP MURRAY said that thei . " !° ' , ( ' the Birmingham First National inter-faith group will further rec-j8"0"^ b£ sent to: ASTHMA Mlir WITHIN HOURS, Ministers' As­ THESE CHURCHMEN set in Bank was added. Others agree­ ommend that all contributions be! The Sixteenth Street Baptist sociation of Greater Birmingham Memorial Fund, care of First L00SENEP motion a coordinated move to ing to join minister-trustees were: disbursed without regard to race A aulck easy way to ' executive committee met to ex­ provide financial aid to all former Mayor Jimmy Morgan, National Bank of .Birmingham brea thine, coughing, r press outrage, calling not only or creed on the following basis: Trust National Bank, Birming- ness, due to recur- injured during the violence here Douglas Arant, Birmingham at­ 1. For hospital and burial ex­ chial Asthma anr* for prayer in churches but for a •not only the bombed church's torney: R, E. Farr, director of : ham, Alabama. fortified MENT penses in excess of insurance paid •llergy, rels" moment of silence each day at congregation, but also aid to District 36 United Steel Workers; Bishop Murray also assured remove v*" noon for a week. families of the four girls killed William Mitch, president of Dis­ of those killed in the bombing of [contributors that their n-ames will usuall- The city responded. Radio in the blast, and those injured, trict 20, United Mine Workers; the church and those injured. inot be released. and TV stations added their voice to the plea. Business firms cooperated, asking em­ ployes to pause that minute, and pray. And Tuesday, leaders of all faiths and creeds met to discuss the tense racial situation and ex­ press sorrow and anguish over the bombing. Beautiful F AMONG THIS group were: Bishop C. C. J. Carpenter, Episcopal Bishop of Alabama; Bishop Joseph H. Durick, auxi­ liary Bishop of the Catholic Dio­ cese of Mobile - Birmingham; SEARS Bishop Nolan B. Harmon, Bishop C of the Methodist Church, North ROEBUCK AND CO. Alabama Conference; Bishop E. P. Murchison, Bishop of the Fifth Episcopal District, Christian Methodist Church; Bishop Charles Golden, Bishop of the Methodist Church, Alabama Conference; Bishop George M. Murray, bishop coadjutor, Epis­ copal Diocese of Alabama; Rabbi Milton Grafman , Tem­ mmMflMmmmBB w ULtibUL

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mm ''v'>.^-y >xf:X BACK AT WORSHIP—Regular services have be­ gun again at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church with Advertisement yesterday's re-dedication of the building. Giving the prayer of dedication is the Rev. Oley C. Kidd, director of Missions and Promotion for Birmingham Baptist Suddenly Assn., at the podium. Standing behind the Rev. Kidd are the Rev. Norman Jemerson, retiring executive di­ My Mew rector of the Alabama Council on Human Relations; the Rev. Allix B. James, speaker at the ceremony; the r Rev. J. H. Cross, minister of the church, and the Rev. Fail Ed Stanfield, new executive director for the Alabama A no* Council on Human Relations. re*- , niircJ

By GERALDINE MOORE Robinettes, teen-age club - of I The pastor, the Rev. J. L. >• Under the auspices of the which Mrs. Eugenia De JarnettiBrown, will deliver his annual •brotherhood of the church, with. is advisor. j sermon during the 11 a.m. Charles A. Brown, Sr. as presi­ dent, the 16th Street Baptist The clinic has been set for [worship service. Music for this Church will observe its 92nd April 23 at 7 p.m. at Mt. Carmel period will be furnished by the ^anniversary April 25 in the ChurcR in the Riggins School male chorus and John L. Frazi- anctuary. Community. Several consultants er. < .Activities will w^ll discuss the theme, "The James Bates is general chair­ J^v.~be c e n t e r ed Teenager and His Problems." man for this occasion. Robert Oy a-r o u n d the The Royal Fairlanes, another N. Walker Jr. is co-chairman. \ theme, "The club, and their adviser, Mrs. Church in the Laura Evans, will work with the Heart of the Robinettes during the clinic. Ascarv meet City-.: Which Horace T. Ward, Atlanta a' SeeKs to Serve Golf tournament torney, will deliver the featr the '{. Heart of speech at the wind-up sesr the Communi­ The first Jesse J. Lewis Amateur Open Golf Tournament the one-day annual HIP ty." the Alabama State Cr will be held April 25 at Cooper : ,; Dr. D. C. Green Course in Powderly. The Association of Rep Washington, na­ MRS. MOORE tournament will be open to all Voting at 3 p.m. tive-Alabamiam, who is director amateur golfers in the area, Street Baptist of publications for the Sunday both male and female. Ward, a School Publishing Board of the house Co'' The top prize will be $100 in v National Baptist Convention merchandise from leading sents t Inc., Nashville, Tenn., will be merchants in the downtown trict " guest speaker. area. The second prize will be Sta' [ William Grier is general $50 in merchandise. Gift cer­ chairman for the celebration tificates will he awarded as and C.. A. Howze is co-chair­ third and fourth prizes, a' man. The program committee is special awards will headed by Henry J. Williams presented to the highe? and Jeffries L. Brown is chair­ lowest scorers, and to f man of the courtesy committee. dressed golfer. N. L. Harris, chairman of the The tournament v finance committee, asks all ducted according tr members of the church to make Tee-off time will ' special financial contributions All interested for the anniversary celebration register at Hi!' in keeping with their abilities 410 North 1 and the expanding needs, and Barber Shop -services of the church. . North and Associate mm i 11111 1/

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WINDOW DEDICATED AT BOMBED CHURCH . Mrs. Maxine McNair, Lisa, Rev. John H. Cross

BY GERALDINE MOORE to those who have made th/ In an impressive, ceremony supreme sacrifice with, theii Sunday afternoon at the Six­ very lives for the cause of teenth Street Baptist Church, a stained glass window, gift from justice and righteousness." the people of Wales, was dedi­ Telegrams were read from cated to the memory of four the Lord Mayor of Carditl, young girls killed when the David Cole and David Petts, church was bombed Sept. 15, designer of the window. It 1963. was disclosed after the meet­ The dedication Sunday culmi­ ing that a letter had also been nated a project begun on Sept. sent by the Mayor-Council of 17, 1963 when the Western' Mail, Birmingham, but was over­ a newspaper published in Car­ looked when the other mes­ diff, Wales, suggested the win­ sages were read. dow as a. gesture of sympathy and understanding, and launch­ AMONG THOSE present for ed a campaign for funds with the ceremonies of the church which to do the job. were Mayor The internationally famous and his administrative assist­ artist, John Petts, was asked ant, William Hamilton. to design the window. He Also present were families of visited the Sixteenth Street two of the girls in whose mem­ Baptist Church in March, 1964 ory the window was dedicated. to secure the information he The window, which is located needed, then went back to at the rear of the church, is Wales to do the work. valued at more than $2,200 and It took more than a year to bears a plaque with the names complete it. The finished of the four girls killed in the product represented contribu­ bombing, Cynthia Dianne Wes­ tions from people of all walks of ley, Carol Rosamond Robertson, life in Wales. In the words of Carol Denise McNair and Addie the artist, "it is an international Mae Collins. symbol of white-Negro reconci­ Mrs. Maxine McNair, mother1 liation." of Carol Denise, was among the members of the families of the .MRS. LEANNA PARCHMAN, dead girls present. "who served as chairman of the committee preparing the ded- ', icatory service, began the GOP chair map ;program with a poetic expres­ sion. to host ladle? ; • Dr. L. H. Pitts, president of Dr. Thomas Brigha>- •Miles College, in the invocation ingham, Republicar prayed "that this day might be man, will host •the beginning of a day of leaders at a hr dedication and that love and p.m. Tuesday peace and brotherhood shall Expected ' icome." George S'e;' The significance of the col- Templeto- srs and the design of the ley, Mr window were explained by Willia- Mrs. Mabe; B. Murphy, chair­ Jack man of the Board of Christian of Education of the Church, who ca "read from a letter written by Ja the artist. fej According to this statement cc "The window seeks to express di the great idea of the identifica n tion of Christ and Everyman." C "The colors symbolize the suf­ fering of Negroes," Petts said "and the brotherhood of man."

THE FIGURE WHICH domi­ nates the window has unusually large hands. The artist said that1 "one of the large hands repre­ sents protest, while the other is wide in. acceptance and love."; An arrow symbolizes a spear in; the side which means "all' violence and suffering." "The rainbow," he said, "is the light of the world and the unity of all colors, and God's promise and covenant." j . In the Litany of Dedication,' the Rev. John H. Cross, pastor of the church said, "We dedi- . cate this window to tne memory of those who have been perse­ cuted for righteousness' sake, to those who have suffered at the \ hands of the perpetrators, and \ •.A-22 4fr. /^LJL-^UC/- fyk0. (foul |;|6th Street Baptist^0ure|i ||p open building fund drive

• -; ! BJ^ ^GERALDINE MOORE ^^'At^nipaign for funds , to •>;|:o;gsfuct a $275,000 educational ; - js«|i(J™,*gcreational building will **J>e£ia$mched soon by the Six- . '-JtlertfelStreet Baptist Church. 'If£-^f3i. Patton, spokesman for !; -1- t&r 3jiS i 1 d i ng - r.'*&»<£*£ commit- ." Z.te^l"said the ' iSitui-'sipport of >fP£~Purch is :-5«B*i5#ted. V?.**4L"*s$tecial fea- »~JtiIre£j£ach Sun- - Suaymt) r n i n g ^ > !.d"u;r"tn g the J^^Sr^"-- ;• regijjaij worship 111 "y" • '.• period will seek,11 1.1 .>;to>$if8rm and MRS. MOORE • ><:$i€>§vgte the membership. : -***H$*Jnorning worship Sunday -.l^a£*lre held in the lower >«audi"i[bYium of the church. A C*sJjectaS;«appeal has been sent out >it^|ll members to be present for >;^s*Jefvice. A26 Ollj? Utrntittgrjam Nfma Sunday, March 5, U Lake, 7631 Fifth Ave. South, begin with the Sunday-school will be a musical at 6 p.m. and extend through the day. Spring Institute to offer courses in human behavior Featured on the program will be the Sixteenth Street BY GERALDINE MOORE Ruth Windham and Mrs. Ministry Sunday March 12 as have gone into the ordained presented today at 7 p.m. at Tea-program Madeline Holland. Baptist Church Orchestra MARTIN SCHOOL'S PTA News staff writer designated by the 1962 general ministry in years past, who the Bethel AME Church in with J. L. Lowe directing. Mrs. Sallie M. Anderson, will sponsor a Tea-Program The 1967 Spring Institute of conference of the Christian are now serving and who are Homewood. Miss Deborah Bums and Miss president, will preside. today at 4 p.m. the Sixteenth Street Baptist, Methodist Episcopal Church. now preparing to serve. Mrs. Ardenia Cooley is Maxine McNair will be solo­ Mrs. Annie Glover, PTA ChhrcE/wnT'"b1fSr'courses in Purpose is to stimulate the sponsor. ists. president; Mrs. Annie M. luTman bahavior, designed to Christian ministry recruitment of ministers in Special program The observance will be Hawkins, project chairman, promote a better understand­ CHURCHES IN the Birm­ the local church. March 12. and Mrs. Mary Stallworth, A SPECIAL feature, "The HIGHLIGHT OF the observ­ ing of the individual. ingham District of the CME Churches on this day will ance of Friendship Day at the Special services, to which publicity chairman, are di­ This study, which will be for Church will observe Christian call attention to those who Call of Christ" will be First Baptist Church, East the public is invited, will recting. all .'age groups, will begin March 6 and end March 10. Children will study "As Jesus, Grew" under the direc­ tion, of Mrs. Sarah E. Tubbs and Mrs. Clevon Phillips. . A course designed for teena­ gers will be taught by Mrs. Jackie P. Young. She will be MRS. MOORE assisted by Mrs. Margaret Z. Beard, guidance counselor at This was the first in a series Brighton High School and Mrs. of "Coffee Hours" planned by Helen G. Heath, guidance the school for this year. counselor at C. W. Hayes The next session will be High School. Title of the March 10 at 9:30 a.m. Mrs. K. course is "Living With Par­ Jasper, guidance consultant, ents." will be guest. "Living with Teeners," which is a counseling course Speaker for parents and teachers of MRS. ETHEL FALI" teenagers, will be developed widely known , in reh" by J. L. Lowe, a deacon at educational and soci?' Sixteenth Street Baptist in Bessemer and Church and principal of Carv­ will be the.' er High School. Mrs. Helen S. Brown will be assisting. Women's Day Street Bapt-' GUIDANCE COUNSELORS 12. helping with this course are She ? Mrs. Louise B. Maxey, West­ a.m ern High School, and Mrs. Carolyn B. Rushin, Brighton High, PA@E 46 BlkMHMGHAM POST-HERALD —Thursday, Septfmbe^26/) 1968 « New Baptist P Installation Slated BY W. ARNETT BRYANT The Rev. G. Murray James Hudson, chaplain and Baptist Church; and response The Rev. James Thomas Branch, pastor, Dexter Ave­ chairman of the Department by the Rev. Crutcher will, Crutcher will be installed as nue Baptist Church, Mont­ of Philosophy and Religion at complete the installation cere­ pastor of the famed Sixteenth gomery, and a former profes­ Florida A&M University. mony. Street Baptist Church in serv­ sor at the International Theo­ The Rev. Monroe W. Shitt, The Birmingham public is ices Sunday at, 3 p.m. logical Center in Atlanta, Ga., pastor of Harmony Street will conduct the installation Baptist Church and moderator invited Jo the event. Rev. • Crutcher will be the service. He will be introduced of the Baptist Mount Pilgrim * * * eleventh minister to serve as by J. Richmond Pearson, District A s s o c i a t ion will pastor of the 95-year old Asst. U. S. Attorney for the preside. Elks Plan Joir' church. He succeeds the Rev. Northern District of Alabama. John H. Cross who resigned Scripture reading by Rev. Special Ser The Rev. Samuel W. Wil­ Milton Stollenwerk, pastor of as pastor last June. The Rev. Robert (Bob) v liams, pastor of Friendship Parker Memorial Baptist Crutcher attended Morehouse alted Ruler College and is a graduate of Baptist Church,; Atlanta, Ga'., Church, invocation by the Lodge N Florida A&M University. He and professor of Philosophy at Rev, W. H. Greason, assistant was called to the Sixteenth , will give pastor of Sixteenth Street Benevo' Street Baptist Church last REV. CRUTCHER the charge to the pastor. Baptist Church; installation Wor1 July 10. al states will participate in The charge to the church prayer by the Rev. Hobart ar Seven ministers from sever- the installation ceremony. will be delivered by Dr. Oden, pastor of 45th Street (B<>fr&t QJLAK

The Sixteenth Street Baptist the First Colored Baptist Church, which gained world­ Church, located at 12th-st and wide recognition when four Fourth-av, n. It then moved to girls were killed in a 1963 Third-av and 20th-st, n — dynamiting, celebrates its present site of J. Blach and 97th anniversary Sunday. Sons. The Rev. Dr. Fulton 0. The congregation moved Bradley, pastor of the again in 1880 to the present Tabernacle Baptist Church of site. The present building, Detroit, will preach at the 11 from the Byzantine and a.m. service, William L. Romanesque periods in archi­ Grier, anniversary chairman, tecture, was built in 1909. said. After the dynamiting, The church was organized contributions came from April 20, 1873 and known as throughout the world for re­ pairs and modernization valu­ ed at $250,000. The people of Church will Wales raised funds and secur­ ed an artist to replace the burn mortgage only stained glass window Mortgage Burning Services which was damaged. will be held Sunday at Nichols Temple A.M.E. Church, Ens­ The Rev. James T. Crutch­ ley. er, current pastor, is only the The Rev. J. L. Myers, eleventh minister to serve the •castor of the church, said church in its history. &^ l^&UV^ &A»v

Sat., Sept. 19, 1970 g[ftg ttfrtttfttglpmt £fomfl —3 SEP 19 t97B WITH NEW REC BUILDING Church envisions $2 million of community help IIf everything goes on schedule, "within ththe ..AWmmmmsmmmnK ^_ ._* , *- next two years young people around the I III 1 j for arts and crafts, a day nursery and ies and the Southern Research Foundation in Sixteenth Street BaplisjLCiiurch will be able kindergarten, small game rooms and a securing jobs for people. to go to the church's education-recreation refreshment room. —Use of education rooms for Red Cross building, bowl a few frames, swim a couple of Rev. Crutcher said one of the main and Neighborhood Youth Corps physical laps around the pool to cool off and then get purposes of the building is to provide an examinations of young people. their hair cut or set without ever leaving the adequate staffed and equipped facility for a —Assistance for Neighborhood Service building. creative Christian education and recreation Centers of JCCEO in providing for the needs program. It's a big project — $2 million worth of of indigent persons and families. educational and recreational facilities for A fund drive to raise the money for the —Retired teachers from the church who young people and adults of the community — memorial building will begin Sept. 27. Birm­ work with the Jefferson County Food Stamp but Sixteenth Street's pastor, Rev. James T. ingham businessman Chris McNair, father of Program. Crutcher, thinks it will "bring out the best in one of the four children who died in the —Marriage and family counseling provid­ people." bombing, will speak at the kickoff rally at 3 ed by the pastor, who is a trained psycholo­ p.m. that day. gist. The building, a memorial to the four —Youth of the church provide entertain- \ children killed when the church was bombed CRUTCHEN SAID, "conditions today ment and various kinds of assistance periodi­ in 1963 — Addie Mare Collins, Denise McNair, suggest that the church must become more cally for the patients at the A. G. Gaston Carol Robertson and Cynthia Wesley — will involved in social action than it has been in Home for Senior Citizens, the Ruby Hill be used for counseling services, training the past." Nursing Home and Children's Hospital. activities, recreation, religious education and The church, he said, should recognize that —Use of a portion of its property for a social service programs for the underprivi­ people have many needs and should do all it Vest Pocket playground. leged. ff can to meet these needs. Sixteenth Street, according to Rev. "IF WE are successful in putting up our Rev. Crutcher described the building as Crutcher is already "joining forces with other CHURCH SHOULD HELP COMMUNITY proposed educational building, we will simply "multi-purpose" and multi-purpose it is. community agencies for the good of the enlarge upon the activities in which we are" . . . Rev. Crutcher at Sixteenth Street Church community." Plans for the facility include a chapel, an already engaged and will sponsor others," ' amphitheater, Sunday school rooms, ceram­ Rev. Crutcher said. credit union office, a large fellowship hall, s, THE ACTIVITIES INCLUDE: ics room, pastor's study, secretaries' office, a gym, a thrift store, a sewing room, a room He added that he hopes the job will be —Direct contacts with employment agenc­ accomplished in two years. Church to Relive' 1^0^ m end centennial activities Some of the events which of this year also will be took place at the Sixteenth summarized. x Street Baptist Church during At the close of the service, a the 1870s will be "relived" fellowship hour will be held in Sunday, when the church con­ the lower auditorium of the gregation brings its centennial church. On exhibit will be some observance to a'close. souvenirs from the church's According to Mrs. Helen past history, and a memorial Brown Pegues, centennial nook, which has been added to committee chairman, men, the church's facilities this women and children will come year. to church decked out in cloth­ Mrs. Brown has been assist­ ing typical of the 1870s. ed by Mrs. Ophelia Hill, Mrs. "Songs and worship form Sue Ash Woodruff, Mrs. Mary will reflect some of the flavor Alice Stollenwerek, Mrs. Myr­ of bygone days," she said. tle Whetstone, Mrs. Lillie Sum­ mers and Miss E. J. McCaw. A BRIEF REVIEW of a cen­ Rev. James T. Crutcher is tury of activity for the church pastor of the church, located at will be presented, and the work 1530 Sixth Ave. North. CW^^Ja- *£Ww- U"^ «y-ao^X^a* T\. T PAGE C2 BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD, Wednesday, January 2, 1974

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It* «is«lll sipit? if :.:»«:! : •H iiliiillllllf \,/ ,. »; Ml mSmm iplillill 'Sillil* feltS**' - MM III 11 III! Ill IllliSlii 1 WSSm° Ml* i.-Sfe Smiling over their awards from the Gaston, president, Citizen Federal Greater Birmingham Emancipation Savings and- Loan Association, and ENJOY Association are (left to right) attorney Duard Le Grand, editor, The Birming- 100 ui Arthur D. Shores; Mrs. Carol Nunnelly, ham Post-Herald. W. C. Patton (ex- Birmingham News reporter; Dr. A. G. treme right) presented the awards. HAGU' "America's Tattial" SPAGHETTI SAUCE Slavery made black tough, bishop says By Adrienne Welch man's persistence and insist­ Staff Writer. ence on his freedom has in­ Instead of slavery destroy­ spired oppressed people ing the black man as designed, around the globe." it challenged him, put steel in The celebration held every his backbone, and gave him a New Year's Day commemo­ determination to overcome, rates the signing of the Eman­ Bishop C. A. Kirkendoll, said cipation Proclamation on Jan. Tuesday at Sixteenth Street 1,1863, in Washington, D. C, by Baptist Church. President Abraham Lincoln. Guest speaker for the 111th Although the document was annual celebration of the signed as "a fit and necessary Emancipation Proclamation, war measure for suppressing the presiding bishop for the rebellion," the official docu­ Fifth Episcopal District, Chris­ ment was responsible for more tian Methodist Episcopal than four million black slaves Church, said that the "black in the United States being freed. Kirkendoll, chairman of the Miles College Board of Direc­ tors, told the audience that "although slavery is behind us, we must never forget the strug­ gle and sacrifice of our forefa­ thers." "We must never forget that we stand this day on the lifeless bodies of men and women who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom." Kirkendoll recalled the inci­ dent of the four little black girls who were killed in Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Sept. 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded in the church. "They paid the supreme sacrifice," he said. The black man has won his new freedom, Kirkendoll said, but he sometimes does not know how to handle the respon­ sibilities of his new freedom, according to Kirkendoll. "A man who cannot make his money serve his best inter­ ests is a slave." The Bishop listed three things necessary for black people to do in order to release themselves from the "econom­ ic mold holding their free­ dom." He said "strong moral and financial support must be given to black businesses," blacks must become an "inte­ gral part of the economic establishment of this country," and they must make "maxi­ mum and wise use of the bal­ lot." Not until a larger number of. black men and women and whites sensitive to the prob­ lems of blacks are put into key policy-making positions on all levels of government, "can we hope for walls holding us to crumbel" Kirkendall said. During the program, awards were presented by Dr. W. C. Patton, president of the Great­ er Birmingham Association to persons who "by their services and work have lighted torches in the city of Birmingham that; will not be put out." Duard Le Grand, editor of The Birmingham Post-Herald, and Mrs. Carol Nunnelly, re­ porter for the Birmingham News, received awards for "distinguishing service in the field of journalism on behalf of black people. Attorney Arthur D. Shores, a Birmingham city councilman, and Dr. A. G. Gas­ ton, president of Citizen Feder­ al Savings and Loan Associa­ tion, also received awards for their contributions. NOV 9 inister, church stil! look to future By Leonard Chamblee blacks on the Birmingham police force. He said it helps Staff Writer ^//f so much to see blacks in uni­ In 12 years, the Rev. John form on the street, and that Thomas Porter has led Sixth apparently the Jefferson Avenue Baptist Church to County Personnel Board is dl-vlnoTr-trre^^Tirelft^c h u r c h largely to blame because plant of a black congregation there are not more. Also, he in Alabama, but he and the said, police are required to church are still looking to the account for their stewardship future. and police brutality is down. The $1.2 million — value Tokenism reigns in the Jef­ five years ago — plant occu­ ferson County Sheriff's De­ pies six of the 12 acres at 1101 partment, Porter said, and Montevallo-rd, sw, and the apparently Sheriff Mel Bailey church has looked at many is responsible. For a-while, he possibilities for development said, seeing some blacks in of the remaining area. the uniform of sheriff's depu­ A change in the black life ties lulled blacks into a feel­ style is reflected in the next ing of progress. Unfortunate­ step — a planned gymnasium ly, he said, a check showed and health club. Porter said these people apparently are fewer blacks do manual labor only part-time and weekend and they get fat and flabby men. and need to exercise. Porter has preached at At one time, Porter said, Shades Valley Presbyterian the church was considering a and ecumenism across racial home for senior citizens or lines is increasing. A bold­ apartments for young cou­ ness is required, he said, and ples, but the area is zoned too often churches have not residential and public reac­ been fully used as a vehicle tion to any change would be a for better race relations. major factor. In education, Porter said In its former location, the there will be a "long-range church began serving retard­ reward" in desegregation, ed children by housing the but blacks have suffered a local school for black train­ great setback. Many white able retardates for a period of teachers do not want to be in time, serving 40 children. In black schools and the very the new building, a day care best black teachers have center operated for four been moved to white schools. years included a special class In addition to the church, a of mentally retarded chil­ $70,000 parsonage and a 300- dren. car paved parking area have Unfortunately, Porter said, been provided. confusion in the State Depart­ Mrs. Porter is known for ments of Mental Health and her children's choir at the Pensions and Security caused church and their son, Jon the closing of the center last Roderick Porter, is church week. He hopes it will be re­ pianist. The Porters also opened, but that cannot hap­ have a daughter and two pen until the state agency is other sons. able to give more guidance Porter will be honored at. 4 than it has in the past, he p.m. Sunday with a musical said. The center had its own presented by the sanctuary board and the church gave choir. the facilities. •:. • ; . • -.' :•-. -.' The Jefferson County Com­ mittee for Economic Oppor­ tunity operated a program bv and for teen-agers at the church, and the highly ac­ claimed Black Fire dancers got their start in the building. Porter said his greatest pride comes in this community in­ volvement. Looking at the city, Porter said much progress has been made and that the city is becoming more cosmopolitan and there is a widening of attitudes. Although more could be done, Porter expressed pride and pleasure at the number of Vol. 110—No. 168 Alah&si.a's largest morning circulation 30 Pages,- Two Sections

RtQ.U. S. Pat. OM. »JKS

By Ted B Staff "Wr MONTGOMERY- of the state treasurer expanded to include ti ties of Frank Bar treasurer, and at 1< information is being Montgomery County Post-Herald has learn Indications are thai investigating both B elected superior, S MelbaTill Allen. Ba merit system employt Both Mrs. Allen an made loans from nu which the treasure . state money—accoi value because they i money at higher in: they pay the state. Representatives ci were seen outside the in the Montgomery C last week when the ji sion. The grand jury rej the week made no n Mrs. Allen or Barefiei One of the banker $$& president of the Alal was seen taking recoi jury loom. Contacts 'HAiviPiSTH NOV 1 5 i377 conferred with an ; dined to comment oi appearance. The other two bai the Bank of Notasul Gregory, a conlrove By Bill Cornwell foot and a half when we felt something person to come out ol that rest room because oi injuries suffered that day, F'la., businessman wl soft, and we uncovered the first body," alive, Sarah Collins Riley, the sister of her right eye was removed. with Mrs. Allen, and Staff Writer said the 52-year-old Cross, who is now Addie Mae Collins, also testified. Chambliss sat calmly throughout the Bank, which Gregory Two survivors of the explosion that employed by the Atlanta Baptist As­ Under questioning by Assistant testimony. Asked about the in tore apart the Sixteenth Street Baptist sociation. Attorney General John Yung, Mrs. The Rev. Cross, whose 3-year-old gomery County Di; Church in 1903 took the witness stand Riley recreated the moments leadiqg daughter was cut by flying glass in the Evans would say or- : Monday and described the events that ^ The nJiiB.ister.»f*flf«flil.tiUixplauih tMO-thft'^ttftlrtfrion.' - •—imlWiH— •n*ff»3rf£*>> r\plosiort, said-atraul lilO'tu 200 persons" ~'f.-hargea'liaye"been p led -tor the deaths of four~y6unjj' black" ail four bodies of the slain girls were had crowded into the church on the person. There was ci " girls. found "as if they had been thrown on "The last tiiae 1 saw my sister she morning of Sept. 15, 1963. He estimated the grand jury want: "It sounded like the whole world top of each other." was tying the sash on Denise McNair's that some 60 percent of the people in were issued to cer shaking." said the Rev. John Cross, Chambliss, a 73-year-old retired dress," she told the jury of nine whites attendance were "young children." At They have honored tl the first witness to testify in the trial of automobile mechanic, has been indict­ and three blacks. the time, the church was considered to "Any other conn, Robert Edward Chambliss, the former ed for first-degree murder in the In a calm, low voice, Mrs. Riley, 26, be a very visible symbol of the black proper at this time." Ku Klux Klansman charged with mur­ deaths of Denise McNair, 11, and 14- told of the frantic aftermath of the community's drive to desegregate Melvin Cooper, ex der in the church bombing. year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Carol Rob­ blast. local schoois. The church was often the State Ethics C Cross, who was pastor of the church ertson and Addie Mae Collins. He is "I called o-.it three times. I said, used as a meeting place for civil rights has been investigs at the time, described the terrific im­ being tried first on the McNair case, 'Addie, Addie, Addie.' Then I heard groups. banking activities, pact of the blast and how minutes later since it is the lowest numbered indict­ somebody say the church had been menton either Mrs.. he was among those digging through ment. bombed," she recounted. Cross testified he went to the streets Barefield, in filing debris in search of bodies. The four girls were in a rest room Mrs. Riley was one of 22 persons in an attempt to calm angry blacks "We had been digging for about a when the explosion occurred. The only injured in the explosion. She said that Continued on A2 Insic

Action Line W®% Amusements Ann Landers Business Classified Cljttus Atkinson .... Comics Deaths Editorials Family Foreign News Heathcliff Patterns People in the News.. Sporls ^POLICE our lis) fog&B <; •* Tv Today Weather Map is P?-ofcCUTOfz.A^ 'DEf' Etf£ >« DEfErJC/W LOOK< 5TpA\enr ATT»P- N E V yTA H D To 6 ETHE p< /WGAP/\<£, APT \\AtiZ->,<,P-. •-if© CHECK juppj^o....;,.;• ~RJPH> TO INSPECT JUpOR^/- diet coverage, confusion mark trial's opening

By Bob Johnson courtroom on the third floor of the tions will effect the way you view the The trial was about a hour and a half courthouse. evidence." late getting started Monday due to a Staff Writer Huey's courtroom has a balcony and Art Hanes Jr., one of Chambliss' delay in getting the jury sworn. The "This is the biggest thing that's hap­ is the largest in the courthouse. It is attorneys, then asked the jurors if any delay was partially caused by the large pened around here since the Phenix the same room that was used when de­ of them had a personal commitment to number of jurors called to duty this City trials," fendants were tried in 1955 for the mur­ Baxley politically. week and by the confusion created at That was the most common reaction der of attorney general nominee Albert Several of the reporters said the trial city hall by people trying to buy car in the halls of the Jefferson County Patterson after a change of venue from reminded them of the trials in 1960s of tags on the next to the last available Courthouse Monday as 73-year-old Phenix City. Ku Klux Klansmen charged with the day. Robert E. Chambliss went on trial for Adding to the atmosphere at the trial slaying of civil rights worker Mrs. The large courtroom was over half the murder of one of four black girls was the presence of Atty. Gen. Bill . One artist for one of the full when Baxley started calling wit­ killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Baxley, who is planning to run for television networks, said he also nesses Monday afternoon and Gibson Street Baptist Church Sept. 15,1963. governor next year. Baxley is leading sketched the Liuzzo trials in Hayne- predicted more people will try to get the state's team of prosecutors in the ville and that some of the same faces Over 30 reporters from across the into the courtroom as the trial pro­ case and asked potential jurors during were present at that trial. United States, including many who ceeds. Two sections of the court were covered the civil rights activities in jury selection if "my political ambi- Art Hanes Sr., who is also represent­ ing Chambliss, defended several of reserved Monday for members of the Birmingham during the early 1960s, press. were on hand at the courthouse when 2 lost Cub Scouts those charged in that case and Monday- the trial got off to a late start about recognized some of the reporters from The trial is expected to last for the 10:30 a.m. the Hayneville trials in 1965 and '66. remainder of the week. All of those attending the proceed­ are found unhurt ings, including the reporters and attor­ neys, were required to walk through a United Press International Sweepstakes can buy your turkey metal detection device similar to those APOPKA, Fla.r-Two missing Cub used at airports. Scouts were found unharmed Monday It's nearly turkey time. To be cial Security numbers that bring afternoon in Wewika Springs State sure your budget is ready for the their holders prizes of $100, $50 and Over 20 Jefferson County sheriff's Park, about a mile from where they annual feast of Thanksgiving, play $25, plus $15 bonuses if the winners deputies and Alabama state troopers had set out on a hike the day before. the Social Security Sweepstakes in subscribe to The Post Herald. ,:.,; were on hand inside the courtroom The disappearance of Randy Gray- The Post-Herald. Today's winning numbers are on when the trial began. Circuit Court bill, 9, and Scott Kaley, 10, both of Three times each week, on Tues­ page A15. Winners take home a Defendant in bombin Judge Wallace Gibson transferred the Lotigwood, f'la., triggered a large- day, Thursday and Friday, The total of $425 each week, so start young black girl, Rob case from his own courtroom to presid­ scale search through the subtropical Post-Herald publishes winning So­ playing the sweepstakes today. bliss, smokes cigarett ing judge Thomas E. Huey's large jungles and woodlands of the park. fers with his attorne

. 1 a 5,07} B'HAM.P0STH

PAGE A2 BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD, Tuesday, November 15, 1977

itS.li'Vi »...&«.'. Bill Baxley Mrs. Sarah Riley Cop). William Berry Chris McNair Dr. Joe Donald Like whole world shaking/ minister of bombed church say:

; Continued from Al influence her decision and she was puzzle." and said each witness will liming device might have been used to two, lhal a bomb could nol have been Siate Rep. Chris McNair, father of ;«ho milled about the church after the withdrawn from Ihe group. contribute to solving thai puzzle. trigger the bomb, used because no evidence of a liming Ihe slain girl, was present in the court­ ^explosion, which occurred about 10:22 Baxley also read a list of names in During his statement. Hanes called "Would a natural gas explosion device was found. room Monday. He is expected to testify Alt], court lo the prospective jurors, asking the bombing a "shocking incident." He Cause Ihe same sort ol damage you Hanes refused to yield ground lo the during the trial. ; Cross said he shouted to the crowd them if they were acquainted with any appealed lo jury, however, to set aside observed at the church'" Assistant prosecution. Throughout Ihe first day. Chambliss. -through a megaphone that they of the persons listed. Many of those on emotions. Attorney General Yung asked Q—-Captain, isn't it true that the dressed in a blue suit, while shirt and ^'should be as forgiving as Christ was Ihe list were former Man members. "You are going to probably see "It would be different," Berry time of placing ihis explosive and the blue patterned tie, showed no emotion forgiving when He hung from the cross Also included was slate Rep. Robert shocking pictures, hear and read replied, method of detonation are a mystery to He did seem to be actively participat­ «nd said: 'Forgive them. Father, (or Gafford. although it was nol immedi­ shocking evidence thai is going to of­ Q—"After such an explosion...can you'" ing in his defense with his lawyers and Ihey know not whal they do.'" ately clear what part Gafford will play- fend you." he cautioned. "Bui proof of one normally find traces oi a detonat­ A—"Yes, sir." appeared lo listen closely to testimony ; The witnesses began testifying in Ihe in the trial, which is expected lo last Ihe incident is nol proof Mr. Chambliss ing device'" Berry said Ihe explosion seemed to Hanes refused to say if his clie'ii; •afternoon, following the lunch recess. aboul one week. is connected to it." j A—"No. sir." have been triggered by dynamite. would take the stand. Selection of the jury took all morning Defense attorney Art Hanes Jr The sharpest questioning ol Ihe day- Yung's questioning apparently was Another wilness. Dr. Joe Donald, Baxley declined lo discuss the case pi part ol Ihe afternoon. Still, jury stressed that the burden of proof is on was reserved lor Capt, William Berry aimed al dashing two long-circulated said he examined the young girls when with reporters selection went faster lhan many had the prosecution and told the jurors they of ihe Birmingham Fire Deparlmenl. rumors. One, that Ihe church actually they were brought to Hillman Clinic for "You fellas are going lo have to talk anticipated. Attorneys lor both'sides are nol to act out of "sympathy, out­ Berry was questioned about the nature was nol bombed, but rather was the treatment. He said the victims were lo me when this thing is over." he said had speculated that jury selection rage, politics," ol the explosion and aboul what sort of scene of a natural gas explosion And dead on arrival at the clinic. as he left the courtroom. '• could have consumed the entire open­ A young pregnant woman was ex­ ing day. cused after she said sympathy for Ihe '. "1 want each juror to examine him­ victims might affect her considera­ self and tell us whether you would tions Coal negotiators talk to no effect Berry's World allow the age of the defendant lo create "I'm expecting my first child." she Associated Press would let union locals walk out The mine owners a sympathy in you where you would said, "and it would upset me very WASHINGTON - Negotiators in the coal labor want lo put reslriciions on wildcat strikes. disregard any evidence you would hear much thai someone could do that to talks met briefly Monday after United Mine Work­ from the stand," Attorney- General Bill someone else's child," Regarding the right-to-strike proposal, Miller ers President Arnold Miller said he is not optimis­ said ihe operators "began arbitrating everything Baxley told the prospective jurors, Opening statements by both sides tic lliat a miners' strike can be avoided. they could out of Ihe 1974 agreement. This action were brief, lasting about live minutes Spokesmen for both sides said there was no was so inllamatory thai it precipilaled a lot of work - An elderly white woman said Cham­ each. great headway in Ihe two-hour session. The negoti­ stoppages." bliss' advanced age would probably Baxley termed Ihe case a "jigsaw- ators will reconvene Wednesday morning. A "The operators themselves have freely admit­ spokesman for the union negotiators said they ted thai a majority of ihe membership wants to wot-ld issue a statement Tucday. work and thai they would nol lake any irresponsi­ Still a long way to ao The union's contract expires at 12:01 a.in, Dec. ble anion unles< il was a serious eonirac.ural NflV1 rHQ77 / J?.. \) a •Hb *ySdt£, SatJ'April'15,1978 She Birmingham Ken>*_i 3

LUNCEFORD, Yoi WuW arWisee I11TIICinvitedU ... Kg BOTH SERVICES Crutcher's resignation as pastor quietly asked S(\PTiST CHURCH-e"s~ 6^- Six-T^E/arrt ST-. Members of Birmingham's Sixteenth matter, saying that it is "an internal \nfin!Wl9»&oPle. OCT 2 7 1979 Goodson declined comment on the Street Baptist Church quietly has asked church situation." He said that he has THE REQUEST for Crutcher's resig­ meeting other than to confirm that for the resignation of the Rev. James not resigned as pastor of the church. nation came at the church's general Crutcher's resignation had been asked. T. Crutcher, the controversial pastor Other church members confirmed conference meeting, a quarterly ses­ ACCORDING TO Mrs. Pegues, who has led the church for a dozen Friday that Crutcher had been asked to sion open to all the members. critics said Crutcher had failed to keep years. leave. Complaints against him, accord­ According to Mrs. Helen S. Pegues, a office hours and had not run the church ; Crutcher was asked to quit at a three ing to members, centered upon his in­ supporter of Crutcher and a church efficiently. and a half hour church meeting volvement in non-church activities and trustee, there were about 120 people at She said Crutcher was accused of Wednesday night, church members the way he conducted his services. the meeting. She said about 60 percent devoting too much time to his role as a confirmed Friday evening. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church voted to ask Crutcher to quit. teacher at Birmingham Baptist Bible .Bennie H. Wilson Sr., the chairman has had a history of friction between its At the meeting, the charges against College. Some church members had of the church's deacons, declined com- pastors and the membership. The Crutcher were read by J.S. Goodson, tried unsuccessfully to oust Crutcher in •;ment on the resignation request. church was the scene of the September the church's treasurer, Mrs. Pegues 1976 for serving as a teacher at the Crutcher also refused to discuss the 1963 bomb blast which killed four girls said. college. Other criticisms of Crutcher, Mrs. Pegues said, centered upon his serv­ ices, which members said included too much singing. Additionally, his oppo­ nents said that he had ordained too many young ministers. Mrs. Pegues said that she felt the attacks were unfair, and that Crutcher was doing a good job running the church. "We have had more young people in that church participating in Christian activities than we have ever had since I was a girl," she said. "The older mem­ bers resented Crutcher because he was opening his hand and his heart to young people." CRUTCHER'S CRITICS would not discuss the reasons they felt he was not doing a good job. Crutcher, 45, gets $12,000 as pastor of the church, according to Mrs. Pegues. He also gets a rent-free home and a gasoline allowance. Peace returns to 16th Street Baptist The 16th Street Baptist Church, embattled over the dismissal of Crutcher conducted a service in a park across from the church its minister, had a peaceful, uneventful service yesterday, last week while the building remained locked. members said. He considers the May 19 meeting to be in violation of the The Rev. James T. Crutcher, whose May 19 dismissal caused a church's constitution, which requires that a meeting be called i schism in the membership, worshipped in the congregation as the from the floor of the church rather than the pulpit. Rev. J. Williams took the pulpit. A 1963 racial bombing incident Crutcher said the meeting was called by the deacons. ^at the church claimed the lives of four girls during the height of \) racial tension in the city. Last Tuesday Jefferson County Circuit Judge William A. Thompson altered his restraining order to allow Crutcher and his A The 500-member church voted 92-5 to fire Crutcher, citing followers into the church. ^ contract violations and dissatisfaction. The charges included J.S. Goodson, a member of the board of deacons, said that ^ taking jobs outside his church work, threats against church yesterday's service was "quite peaceful." ^ members and soliciting contributions for the church. Goodson was glad to have the church open again. "I didn't hear Jg^ The church was closed last Sunday to avoid any confrontation a negative comment." ^ with Crutcher and his supporters. A temporary restraining order James Finch, chairman of the board of deacons, had no ^b had been issued to keep the pro-Crutcher group from interfering comment on yesterday's service attended by Crutcher and his ^ with services. followers. . .

Members of the congrega­ tion walk down the steps of historic 16th Street Baptist Church after the first peace­ ful worship service there in weeks. During the service, the church's former pastor, the Rev. James T. Crutcher (center, at right) worships with members who had left with him to hold services in park across street.

By Michael McMullac ,$D Bitterness Divides Landmark Birmingham Church

By DIANE McWHORTER * court-supervised election, the congre­ Special to The New York Times gation voted to retain Mr. Crutcher. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 1 — The The deacons have complained about padlocks were removed from the doors declining church attendance and reve­ of the 16th Street Baptist Church today nues, about Mr. Crutcher's failure to for the first Sunday In three, and a visit­ have regular office hours, and his re­ ing pastor brought the grim congrega­ fusal to meet with the deacons before tion a message from God: "He told me services. to tell you, I am not pleased with how But the most impassioned objections things are going." concern his behavior. A deacon, James L. Lowe, said he was one of the pastor's One of those murmuring "Amen" "staunchest supporters" until Mr. from the first pew was the Rev. James Crutcher said from the pulpit that two T. Crutcher, the once and perhaps fu­ deacons were going to lose their minds ture pastor of the church, which in the before the seventh month of the year. 1960's stood at the center of the struggle Mr. Crutcher has professed a mystical for civil rights in the South. attachment to the number seven. Mr. Crutcher has been sitting with And today, parishoners were still the congregation at services since he clucking their tongues over the pastor's <*j was dismissed at a meeting that he and Mother's Day sermon, in which he said his followers boycotted last May. that members of the congregation lived v After more than 100 church members like dogs. "That's a hard pill to swal­ met on July 14 and voted to reinstate the low," said Rachel Bishop, who helped to pastor, the church deacons, who had dig the church foundation in 1909 and is called the earlier meeting, decided to the church's oldest member. "This is lock the doors of the church. the most fashionable church in Bir­ Focus of Rights Movement mingham." The last time the 16th Street Church, Underlying the deacons' criticisms, s, the oldest black Baptist church in Bir­ according to Mr. Crutcher and his sup­ mingham, was closed was when a Sun­ porters, is classism. The 16th Street day school class on "the love that for­ The Rev. James T. Crutcher, right, former pastor, listening during service. Baptist Church is "full of high types," gives" was interrupted by a bomb blast, the deacons' lawyer, Donald Newsom, that killed four young girls on Sept. 15, said. Many congregation members \ 1963. circumstances," he said, "we did not from "trespassing" on church prop­ refer to themselves as "the elite," and Several months earlier, the doors of ask and would not go if we had been per­ erty. The next day, Mr. Crutcher con­ did not warm to the character of Mr., the church had been opened to provide mitted." ducted services across the street from Crutcher's free-wheeling street minis­ refuge to civil rights marchers from On July 20, a week after the church the church. Last Thursday, a prelimi­ try. "He brought a lot of uncultured Public Safety Commissioner Eugene members had voted to reinstate Mr. nary injunction was reworded to allow people in here," said Mrs. Bishop. 1 (Bull) Connor's dogs and firehoses. The Crutcher, 13 of the 19 church deacons the defendants to attend church. In today's guest sermon, the Rev. J. church became a focal point of the civil filed a lawsuit seeking to uphold his dis­ Williams led a tearful congregation in a rights movement as the headquarters missal and to bar the pastor and 12 of Long Power Struggle chant of "Satan, get out of here. This is a for the Southern Christian Leadership his more visible supporters from The dismissal of Mr. Crutcher is the God's property. We will not let you ruin Conference's demonstrations. church property. One of the plaintiffs most recent controversy in a long the church." The conference is returning to Bir­ was Claude A. Wesley, whose daughter, power struggle between the pastor and _But increasingly over the past five mingham next week for its 25th annual Cynthia, had been killed by the bomb. the deacons. In 1976, eight years after years, according to Mr. Woods, Bir­ convention, but it won't be holding any One of the defendants was Maxine Mr. Crutcher arrived as pastor, the mingham's black churches have been events at the 16th Street Church, said a McNair, the mother of another victim. deacons tried to dismiss him and taking their disputes to the temporal regretful Rev. Abraham Woods, a long On July 21, a judge issued a tempo­ charged that he had not properly super­ courts. And it is likely that this one will The New York Times/Michael McMulIan time civil rights activist who heads the rary restraining order, enjoining Mr. vised his secretary, who had forged be settled in a judge's chamber some­ Parishioners leaving the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., local conference chapter. "Under the Crutcher and the 12 other defendants more than $12,000 worth of checks. In a time in September. after yesterday's service, the first held there in three Sundays. Case of fired preacher goes to court The chairman of the board of deacons of the Sundays before at the 11 a.m. service, and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church testified this notice letter was circulated among members on morning that church members were notified by those three days. letter in advance of a meeting at which the Rev. N^ Crutcher has said his dismissal was illegal James Crutcher was fired. v& because three-fourths of the members were not James Finch is one of 14 deacons who filed A present when the vote against him was taken. suit in Jefferson County Circuit Court asking a judge to determine whether Crutcher was fired £i> Judge William Thompson, who is hearing the legally. ^P case, first issued an injunction banning Crutcher Finch, the first witness this morning at a ££ and a dozen of his supporters from entering hearing on the suit, said Crutcher was fired ^JsF'the church, but later modified that to allow § after a May 19 meeting at which members ^^ Crutcher and the members to attend church and voted 92-5 to "vacate the pulpit." ^ to let Crutcher conduct weddings and funerals if "There was no one who was not allowed to ^ asked by individual members of the church. come to the meeting," said Finch. He said the ^However, the order prohibits Crutcher from/ meeting and its purpose were announced three j—'ministering to the church as a whole. J Judge reaffirms ruling to keep Crutcher as pastor OK 2 ?S82 HAM. POST H By Sam Hodges Newsom said he learned after the first are and let them make the decision." unlike the church constitution, were never Post-Herald Reporter ruling that the church's constitution was J.L. Lowe, chairman of the church adopted by the membership. Circuit Judge William Thompson yester­ amended to allow the chairman of the dea­ finance committee, said he was not sur­ Wood said Tuesday that though the arti­ day refused to change his ruling that the cons to call a meeting without the pastor prised at yesterday's ruling. cles may never have been adopted, they minister of 16th Street Baptist Church was being present. "We had a feeling it was going to go that were recorded in probate court. fired illegally. way, because of the technicalities. What is According to Lowe, the articles were Thompson's earlier ruling, and his affir­ Thompson ruled that the amended consti­ surprising is that the judge would make a recorded by members who want Crutcher as mation of the ruling yesterday, in effect tution should have been presented before decision based on an item that has not even pastor. leaves Dr. James T. Crutcher as pastor. the first hearing. been adopted by the church." Those who oppose Crutcher published a Crutcher was fired by church members at He also said that even if it had been pre­ •;#S§x> The "item" Lowe referred to is the list of 22 allegations against him Tuesday. a May meeting, but Thompson ruled in early sented, "It has not been shown that the doc­ church's articles of incorporation. Among them are that he is responsible for November that the firing was illegal ument ... would alter the outcome of the Fred Wood, a lawyer who represents 12 a decline in church attendance, and that he because the meeting had not been called action or prevent an injustice." church members, supporting Crutcher, used church facilities for his own money- according to church law. Newsom said he knew of the decision but argued to Thompson that the articles of making ventures. As interpreted by Thompson, the church's had not read Thompson's order. incorporation should, under Alabama law, Crutcher could not be reached for com­ constitution requires that the pastor be He said he doesn't know if his clients have authority over the church constitution. ment yesterday. present for the calling of a church meeting. would continue trying to get Crutcher dis­ The articles of incorporation do not give Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was the Attorney Don Newsom, representing 14 missed through the courts. the deacons authority to call a church meet­ site of a 1963 bombing during the height of •if deacons who oppose Crutcher, asked Crutcher remains 16th Street pastor "What I'll do is call a meeting of my peo­ ing without the minister's cooperation. racial tension in Birmingham. Thompson Tuesday to reconsider the ruling. ple and explain to them what their options Lowe said the articles of incorporation, Four black girls died in the bombing. . Dl

Birmingham Post-Herald Metro Monday, December 20, 1982 §^B^MM^MMmM^:M Street church Reverend gives up church just weeks after winning 7-month reinstatement battle

By Katharine Biele for the calling of a church meeting. Marshall said 70 members of the 500- He said the board would call a meeting Post-Herald Reporter Members who opposed Crutcher published member church were present yesterday. this week to discuss the next pastor. A brief announcement before a dwindling a list of 22 allegations against him including "After the service, many of the people "We'll be going back now." congregation yesterday ended Dr. James T. the responsibility for declining membership went up and shook his hand, congratulating A pulpit committee will ask prospective Crutcher's 14-year career as pastor of the and the use of church facilities for his own him for resigning. He said he felt like there pastors to conduct trial services before the 16th Street Baptist Church. money-making ventures. would be other places for him." congregation votes on a new minister, he "I'll be following the Holy Spirit," Crutcher conducted regular Sunday serv­ said. Crutcher said from his home last night. "I ices yesterday, but read his resignation Marshall said Crutcher and the congrega­ "Attendance was way off. Collections really think it's had enough publicity, and I before the benediction, Morris Marshall, tion had been at odds since about 1977 when were way off. It was the old time substan­ really don't have anything to say about it." secretary to the board of deacons, said. $12,000 was found missing from the church tial members who contributed generously to Crutcher won a seven-month battle to "He said the Lord directed him to give his treasury. the church who left," said Don Newsom, retain his position as minister Dec. 1 when resignation today. About 100 members have been attending attorney for the 14 deacons who opposed Circuit Judge William Thompson ruled that "He asked for a motion to be accepted. I worship services at other churches since Crutcher. — he was fired illegally. Church members made the motion to accept his resignation Thompson's ruling. James Finch, chairman Said Fred Wood, a lawyer who repre­ voted 92-5 against the pastor at a May as of today, and it was seconded and car­ of the board of deacons, attended Sunday sented 12 members supporting Crutcher, MMNR meeting called by deacons. ried. School at the church yesterday, but partici­ "The only reason he would leave would be Thompson noted that the church's consti­ "If there was any opposition, I didn't hear pated in services at Tabernacle Baptist that he thought it was ultimately best for Crutcher 'following the Holy Spirit' tution requires that the pastor be present it." Church on Center Street. the church." [V <4 S^pi-. /C?V>"5 ^fronC f-^0

¥he BinsrfHgilLGUtt hands that has made Bir­ points cot.iing out of Latin it with ready-made labels and mingham, and in some sense America. facile, dangerous compari­ the United States, a better Art's traditional social role sons. OSCAR MONTERO After reading Howell place to live. At present, of providing us with the New York City Raines's article "The Bir­ there are young people images by which we knOiV mingham Bombing" (July throughout this country who ourselves and others comes 24), 1 left it in a convenient Mario Vargas Llosa falls to in 20 years will have a chance out of the ability of individual place so that I might reread it explain how Sendero Lurnino- to better their "Birmlng- artists to attend to both the the following Sunday — a hia­ so, with only a handful of fol­ hams." As skeptics, they whole and its parts at ones. tus of only seven days, but lowers, has managed to ter­ must fail. As progressive The image created by Mr. time enough, I thought, to rorize Peru. builders, they will surely win. Llosa will stay with me — Living for most of last year gain another perspective on and, I hopu, others as well. the events of Sept. 15, 1063. ARTHUR V. DEUTCSH in one of Sendero's occupied Chief of Police The ultimate disservice was SUSAN B. MONTGOMERY zones, I saw the war first­ Birmingham done to four little girls that Westport Point, Mass. hand. The army and the po­ morning, but if we do not lice act brutally, interrogat­ recognize the positive things Howell Raines's article im­ ing suspects more or less at that derived from their hor­ pressed me with its sensitivi­ random. The peasants, who rendous deaths, then they ty. However, Mr. Raines's have been exploited by out­ have surely died in vain. decision to shelter Robert siders for centuries, hate the Chambliss from knowing that Birmingham is maturing, police even more than they it was his wife who put him in and because of those deaths fear the guerrillas, and so prison showed misplaced has become a better place. Sendero operates freely. compassion. The heat from that biast Mr. Llosa should advise his seared many hearts — some It is ironic that, in the end, president and ours to send forever; but, as in most ex­ even this conscientious re­ more economic aid and pull in plosions, there was much porter protects Chambliss's the reins on his military. light produced. That light is right to die peacefully. Who protected the rights of the RONALD BERG still prevalent in Birming­ Ann Arbor, Mich. ham, but In a positive sen.se: children on the morning of 8 light that, through lawful Sept. 15, 1963, to die peaceful­ process, allows Mayor Rich­ ly? HEDDY PENA V&hUi Solitary Jfoy s ard Amngton Jr. (a black New York City man) to exercise his leader­ 0$I Swcullkiflf ship and build toward a better Tarn bitten wiUrcurtosity ~~ The democratization of about the women — "the Mario Vargas Llosa criti­ sculling that Peter Stoier dis­ small network of women with cizes the "incomprehensib.e cusses in his article "The . , .... Klan ties who passed Infor­ abstraction" that socialism, Solitary Joys of Sculling" mation to the authorities." communism and other ideolo­ (July 24), is actually on its Why? What did they need that gies represent for the In­ second time around. they were willing to risk so dians, and yet he brandlsres In the years framing the much? Were their lives such the term "democracy" as if Civil War, Americans took up a hell because their men were that particular abstraction rowing from the English aris­ monsters? Or did they have a were to Ix; readily understood tocracy (who, ironically, had courage and moral conviction and embraced by everyone. elevated It in the late 18th that I, for one, would surely century from a diversion en­ like to hear more about. He is honest in acknowledg­ ing, even Indirectly, that a s a joyed by watermen on the PAM MOTTLEY writer and envoy of "Hr. Thames). The new American Peconic, L.I. Government," he is part of rowers boasted of it as the the privileged "sector of soci­ best of all democratic sports, ety" that he criticizes; bui he especially single sculling, does little to bridge the /jap which they celebrated as healthy, rigorous and acces­ future through the coopera­ In his article "Inquest in between the cultural richness sible to all. Rowing achieved tive efforts of blacks and the Andes" (July 31), Mario and the material poverty of such phenomenal popularity Wfilr.es. That same light now Vargas Llosa goes beyond the the Indians and those, such as by 1872 that the sporting jour­ allows a New York City police reporting and analysis of a himself and his reader, privi­ nal Turf, Field and Farm re­ executive to be given the op­ single event. With the eye and leged enough to obseive, ported that 12,000 Americans portunity to direct Birming­ ear of an artist, he unites un­ write and read about it. had joined boating clubs. ham's fine police depart­ derstood subtleties, discrirai- Mr. Liosa should be re­ During these years the artist ment, a department that has nantly rendered detail and minded that the road to so­ — and single sculler — realized a drastic decrease in his own emotional response to cialism ;md democracy may Thomas Eakins, who painted crime. the massacre with a por­ not be a "shining path" but not one aristocratic subject in trayal of the larger, temporal an "Intricate one," a com­ In September 1&63, I was a his life, paid tribute to some environment in which this plex, sometimes dark tttrri- rookie sergeant in Brooklyn's of his exemplarily demo­ conflict occurred. tory it would behoove hir.a to 71st Precinct while Richard cratic colleagues in mid- tread wiJi more tact and in­ Arringion was attending He has created a single, stroke on Philadelphia's sight tht..i he shows in his ar­ school in a less than hospita­ powerful image and an en­ Schuylkill River. ble environment. At that lightened context within ticle. As a writer, he should time, neither of us could have which we can all assess the throw light on the path, what­ ELIZABETH JOHNS envisioned the joining of numerous articles and view­ ever it might be, not obscure Silver Spring, Md. JMMBgMBBMBHIMMttMMBMIlMM immMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmtfmmmm IBM—M——MMBBBm mammmima&mMammmmwmmttmmmscmmm

50 BrUm- \&ctpT*ST- Chwohts ~ V|y:ie^nr-ia • 64-w^^H Movies/5C Life/Style/10C South news, Money/12C . Markets/14C meetings Page 3C Fri., Oct. 17, 1986 ©u IBitimngham News Rev, James Young to be new pastor at Sixteenth Street By Greg Garrison News religion writer The sun beamed through the famous stained-glass "Wales Window for Ala­ bama" at the south end of the church, and the rays of light settled on the Rev. James Young. Young, who will he installed Sunday as pastor of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, stood at the railing which overlooks the church, its light-blue walls, its red-cushioned pews and its stunning stained-glass windows. o "It is a gorgeous building," Young said. "This church has such a rich his­ xCO: o tory, you can almost feel a part of it." 3 'It's a sense of awe," he said, describing the sensation of standing in the church. "There's almost a mystique about it, primarily because I know the •D history associated with it." The church was a center of activity for planning civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s and was the site of the Sept. 15, 1963 bomb blasUthat killed four young black girls and injured 19 other people. There are reminders of that history — a plaque on thewffll near the altar that memorializes the four children killed here, thp'window sent from 5 Wales as a tribute to the church-after the bombingy^ and the reminders are

A

JOHN T.PORTER BEHOLD Rev. Porter has been Pastor of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham since 1962. A native of how good Birmingham, he grew up in the church that he now pastors. He is a graduate of Alabama State Univer­ MEMORIAL and how pleasant sity and of Morehouse College's School of Religion in Atlanta. Active in the in Birmingham in 1963, he led two historic marches, including the one on Palm Sunday. For his efforts, it is for brethern he was jailed three times—once along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Following the tragic bombing of to dwell together the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, he conducted the funeral service for three of the girls at Sixth in unity! Avenue Baptist. SERVICE ABRAHAM L.WOODS It is like Rev. Woods is President of the Birmingham Chapter of the Southern-Leadership Conference and a the precious ointment member of the national organization's board of directors. He has served as Pastor of St. Joseph's Baptist Church since 1967. He attended Morehouse College; earned a sociology degree from Miles College, a upon the head, theology degree from Birmingham Baptist College, and an M.A. in American History from the Univer­ that ran down sity of Alabama. During 1963, he helped plan and lead the massive civil rights demonstrations in upon the beard, Birmingham and later worked out of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s office in Atlanta as the Southern even Aaron's beard: Deputy Director for the March on Washington. that went down to the skirts of his garments;

As the dew ofHermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

PSALM 133 A Song of David

THE COMMITTEE FOR SEPTEMBER 15TH Remembering |.L. LOWE, CO-CHAIRMAN BETTE LEE HANSON, CO-CHAIRMAN YVONNE E.BASKIN ROBERT G.CORLEY the great personal sacrifices OTIS \WNE DISML'KE MICHAEL A. DOBBINS J. SPURGEON GOODSON GREGORY R. HODGES of those who sought PHILIP A. MORRIS SAMUETTAP. NESBITT BARBARA A. NUNN "liberty and justice for all." ANNE PETERSON- LEWIS W.WHITE ODESSA WOOLFOLK SEPTEMBER 15 T H

"IN EMBRACING OUR HISTORY, THERE IS HEALING.' 19 6 3-1988

THE SIXTEENTH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH

A MEMORIAL SERVICE September 15th, 1988 7:00 p.m.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." DEDICATED JAMES E.YOUNG Rev. Young has served as Minister of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church since July 1986. He is a TO THE GLORY OF GOD ORGAN PRELUDE graduate of Alabama A&M University, the University of Tennessee, and the ITC Morehouse School of Mary A. Stollenwerck Religion in Atlanta. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe G. Young, Sr, he was a high school student in Centreville, Alabama in 1963. PURCELL TRUMPET VOLUNTARY Donald R.Elder, RICHARD ARRINGTON, JR. Dr. Arrington has served as Mayor of Birmingham since 1979. He is a graduate of Miles College, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra University of Detroit, and the University of Oklahoma, where he wasa doctoral student in 1963. The TO THE MEMORY OF Dennis R. Herrick, Montgomery Symphony Orchestra first black mayor of Birmingham, now serving his third consecutive term, he has been widely honored for his outstanding leadership. PROCESSIONAL HYMN ADDIE MAE COLLINS "Soon And Very Soon" THE FREEDOM CHOIR Children's Chorus Originally formed in the late 1950's to support the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, the DENISE McNAIR choir was renamed "The Freedom Choir" in the early 1960's. Composed primarily of members from Advent Episcopal Day School various black church choirs in Birmingham, the group sang at all of the mass meetings for civil rights in St. Paul's Cathedral School CAROLE ROBERTSON Birmingham. More often than not, the choir sang music composed or arranged by its director, Carlton Reese, whose version of "We Shall Overcome" was used by civil rights groups across the country. A THE WORD OF THE LORD native of Westfield, Alabama, Reese was a sociology student at Miles College in 1963. He has served as CYNTHIA WESLEY The Reverend James E. Young director of music for New Bethlehem Baptist Church in Dolomite for the past 34 years.

A SPECIAL OCCASION SISTER RITA WASHINGTON Mayor Richard Arrington. Jr. Sister Rita Washington is Director of the Roman Catholic Diocesan Office for Black Catholic Concerns. A native of Mobile, Alabama, she studied at Catholic University and was graduated from Carlow Uni­ SONGS OF FREEDOM versity in Chicago. A member of Sisters for Christian Community, she came to Birmingham from Gadsden, where she previously served as Pastoral Minister at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church. In AND TO ALL SEEKERS OF The Freedom Choir 1963, she was a high school student in Mobile. Carlton Reese, Director "LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL" BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGE THE TIE THAT BINDS CONCERT CHOIR IN OUR COMMUNITY Sister Rita Washington Directed by Hugh Thomas since 1964, this choir has performed twice in New York City's Carnegie Hall, has made two critically acclaimed European tours, and has performed by invitation before two "AMAZING GRACE" AND BEYOND national and three regional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association. A "musical Birmingham-Southern College institution" in Birmingham, Hugh Thomas has directed the Indian Springs School Glee Club and the Concert Choir First United Methodist Church Choir (the latter for 34 years). In 1963, he was a Professor of Music at Hugh Thomas, Director Birmingham-Southern, where he has served on the faculty since 1946. Soloists: Ruth Randall, Gianna Barget/.i JOHN H.CROSS Rev. Cross is the Director of Black Church Relations for the Atlanta Baptist Association. A native of SEPTEMBER 15TH: Haynes, Alabama, he is a graduate of Virginia Union University in Richmond, where he earned degrees FOUR PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES in sociology and theology. From 1962 to 1968, he was the Minister of the Sixteenth Street Baptist The Reverendjohn H. Cross Church. On Sunday, September 15th, 1963, the day of the bombing, he walked the streets around this church, appealing to a gathering crowd to go home and pray, saying "Father, forgive them, for they Rabbi Steven L.Jacobs know not what they do'" The Reverendjohn R. Claypool, IV The Reverendjohn T. Porter STEVEN L.JACOBS Rabbi Jacobs has been Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham since 1984. He is a graduate of Penn­ "MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY" sylvania State University and of Hebrew Union College's Jewish Institute of Religion. A native of Balti­ more, Maryland, he was a high school student in 1963. His grandparents and other close family Combined Choirs members died in the Holocaust. Now, in addition to his rabbinical duties, he serves as Instructor in Jewish and Holocaust Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, at Birmingham-Southern BENEDICTION College, and at Samford University. The Reverend Abraham L. Woods JOHN R. CLAYPOOL, IV "THE LORD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU" Rev. Claypool has served as Rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Birmingham since 1987. A native Birmingham-Southern College of Franklin, Kentucky, he was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a graduate of Baylor University, of Concert Choir the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest at Austin, Texas. He was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1953, and to the THE WORD OF THE LORD Episcopal ministry in 1986. In 1963, he was a minister in Louisville, was active in the civil rights move­ ment there, and came to know Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a friend. Sister Rita Washington

RECESSIONAL: HYMN #477 Continued on back panel "Lift Every Voice And Sing" A First Baptist Church, Hueytown FELLOWSHIP FELLOWSHIP HOSTS First Presbyterian Church April Autrey IN THE PARK First United Methodist Church Aaron Carlton Flowers Baking Company SEPTEMBER 15TH Barry Clemmons Forty-Sixth Street Baptist Church i 8 8 Robert G.Corley The Freedom Choir Faye Joyce Davis Golden Flake Snack Foods MUSIC Michael A. Dobbins Hanson& Hanson 5:30-6:45 RM. Peggy Dobbins Hodges & Associates Sara B. Fuller The Birmingham Heritage Band Huffman United Methodist Church Three-On-A-String Joannettajarman TheJothanCallinsBand Pat Hoban Moore Jothan Callins Band Anne Peterson Leo Ticheli Productions REFRESHMENTS Hilary Rosenzweiz Master Plan Design and Communications 5:30-6:45 RM. KathieTharpe Mathews Catering Service McDonald's Restaurants Soft drinks, hot dogs, potato chips and homemade cookies. All prepared SPECIAL THANKS Metropolitan Community Church, Woodlawn with the same recipe: Lots of love, hope, faith, forgiveness and friendship. Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church, Ensley New Pilgrim Baptist Church With tenderness and understanding stirred Advent Episcopal Day School Pete's Print & Copy Center in. Sprinkled with laughter, And served warm and generously. A.H. Cather Publishing Company Plant Odyssey Alabama Gas Company Pro Video Systems WELCOME AND REMARKS Baptist Church of the Covenant Robinson Iron 6:15-6:30 RM. Bethel Baptist Church of Pratt City Roebuck Park Baptist Church Birmingham Heritage Band Yvonne E. Baskin Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church Birmingham Park and Recreation Board and the Edwards. LaMonte Saint Joseph's Baptist Church Odessa Woolfolk Birmingham Botanical Gardens Saint Luke's A.M.E. Church, Hueytown Birmingham Parking Authority Saint Mark United Methodist Church ACROSS THE STREET Birmingham Police Department Saint Paul's Cathedral On the site of the future Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Birmingham-Southern College Concert Choir a new landscape design has been created by Southern Living Saint Paul's Cathedral School and the Birmingham Park and Recreation Board. Birmingham Streets and Sanitation Department Sardis Baptist Church Birmingham Traffic Engineering Department (Sign Shop) Shades Mountain Baptist Church A MEMORIAL SERVICE Boutwell Studios (Mark Harralson) Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bruno's, Inc. 6:45 RM. Southern Living (Doors open at 6:30 RM.) Buffalo Rock Company Three On A String Cafe L'Netta Valley United Methodist Church The organ prelude at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church beginsat 6:45 RM., with the processional and live Cathedral Church of the Advent television broadcast scheduled for 7:00 RM. Please take your seat early and share in the personal perspectives Vogue Cleaners, Inc. on September 15th from Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr., Rev. John Cross. Rabbi Stevenjacobs, Rev. John Chef Clayton Sherrod Catering WBRC-TV Channel 6 Claypool and Rev. John Porter. Coca-Cola Bottling Company Dawson Memorial Baptist Church WENN Radio SPONSORED BY Downtown Girls Club THE COMMITTEE FOR SEPTEMBER 15TH

A broad-based group of individual Birmingham citizens. (3htiitmmahamKett)0

Friday, April 17, 1998 GKM

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Members of the church's choir posed for this photo in 1917.

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By Greg Garrison Hamlin, Behind the Stained Glass: A History of Sixteenth Baptist News staff writer Church, (Crane Hill Publishers, $14.95) that details the history of ivil rights leaders Martin the church from the early days to Luther King Jr. and Fred its heyday, the tumultuous civil Shuttlesworth preached rights era and on up through recent Cthere to mass rallies that events. Hamlin will sign copies at helped move a generation. the church 2-4 p.m. Saturday. A1963 bombing blew Jesus' face The church was founded April 20, Anniversary- out of a stained-glass window, killed 1873, by black residents who moved four girls and led to worldwide out­ from South Alabama to take jobs in From Page 1H , rage that helped change America. the mines, Hamlin said. They When Shuttlesworth, who was pastor Few churches in the world are organized the First Colored Baptist better known or as firmly en­ of Bethel Baptist Church in College- Church of Birmingham at Third ville in the late 1950s, needed a rally­ trenched in the history of a nation Avenue North and 14th Street. as Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, ing place for civil rights meetings, he which marks its 125th anniversary "It was a small congregation," often turned to Sixteenth Street. Sunday at 11 a.m. Hamlin said. "There's very little historical documentation of those "You didn't have a place where Ne­ Leading up to that event, a car­ groes could come together in large nival will be held in the church early days." But by the time the Rev. William groups except at Sixteenth Street," parking lot at 11 a.m. Saturday and said Goodson, a former Sunday school a concert at 6:30 p.m. R. Pettiford served as pastor, 1883-1893, Sixteenth Street superintendent, treasurer and deacon. About 80,000 tourists "That is one of the reasons King came each year visit the was developing into a major church. to Sixteenth Street. At that time, it church. "It's like Qeconc/7e $as the biggest church. It was cen­ going to Jerusa­ i^vV sweef Baptf,s/„ % In the 1880s, an trally located." lem to see /oa s r" y;tt< Anriiyef, impressive brick where Jesus <% Of structure was • The heyday for the church was was crucified," built at I6th 1955-65, Goodson said. "That church said Gladys Su­ Street and seats around 1,200; we'd have at least rds, a member Sixth Avenue 800 to 900," he said. "You couldn't get since the late North. It was a seat on Easter Sunday." 1940s. "It's a later matter of curi­ demolished to ; But the bombing and threats osity. They want make way for against the church scared off some to see. If they are the modern members. "There was fear," Goodson interested enough building, said. "Quite a bit of fear." to ask what happened, hi 1909, the ^Others moved away from down­ we should have enough church hired Wallace pride to tell them." town and joined churches closer to Rayfield, a prominent their communities. Infighting re­ Sixteenth Street welcomes the black architect, to design its new tourists and continues to serve as a sulted in several pastors being fired building, which was finished in 1911 abd more lost members. public forum and meeting place as on the same foundation as the well as a monument to the city's NEWS STAFF PHOTO/HAL YEAGER previous structure. Restoration campaign history. The Rev. Christopher Hamlin has been pastor of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church for eight "It is a community church," said The church grew along with the I After the Birmingham Civil Rights the Rev. Christopher Hamlin, pas­ city. Institute opened across the street in years. tor for the pgst eight years. "It was pretty filled up in the 1(992, the church began an extensive The FBIS reopening of the bomb­ '40s," said J.S. Goodson, a retired rfenovation of its sanctuary and exte­ Despite all the work done over the About 25 church members serve as except Monday, members are in the ing investigation last year and Spike schoolteacher who has been a rior. past few years, $1 million more will mentors to 12 inmates at state cor­ church offering tours from 10 a.m. to Lee's fita 4 Little Girls, which had member since 1940. "Some need to raised, Hamlin said. "We still rectional facilities and meet with 4 p.m. its Birmingham premiere last year, churches have a lot of hullabaloo, a | "In 1992, when we started a cam­ have structural cracking on the east them weekly. The church's married "The tourism is good," Goodson brought renewed attention to the whole lot of shouting going on," he paign to restore the building, that's side of the building," he said. couples Sunday school class sponsors said. "E gives people an idea what we 500-member church and its history. said. Sixteenth Street wasn't like ^hen I really tried to understand the While keeping up its role as care­ a Saturday feeding program, serving went tarough. It gives them an idea NEWS STAFF PHOTO/JEFF ROBERfS that, he said. "It was a sophisticated nature of the building," Hamlin said. taker for the headquarters of Bir­ about 30 to 60 people. what they were going through and The window in the center of the balcony of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was donated by Anniversary book group," Goodson said. "Everybody The bombing and the wear of time mingham's civil rights movement, didn't know they were going through. tfjbk their toll on the historic church, The church has a tourism ministry They didn't know it was as bad as it the people of Wales and installed in 1965 to commemorate the 1963 bombing that killed Along with the anniversary sat and listened." the congregation also stresses main­ he said. taining vital worship and ministries. with about 30 volunteers. Each day, was.' four girls. celebration comes a new book by See Anniversary, Page 3H ; /.' i-f-; &oJp COMMENTARY Sunday, May 28, 2000" Memories of old Birmingham awakened

By DALE RUSSAKOFF Movement Gallery, seeing a replica of hen a bomb killed four black the spare cell where the Rev. Martin girls at Sixteenth Street Bap­ Luther King Jr. was jailed during the tist Church in Birmingham 1963 marches, and hearing his impas^, W sioned voice, on tape, read his "Letter' on Sept. 15, 1963, I was at another Sunday school barely two miles away. From a Birmingham Jail" —- written in i I remember feeling sick and over­ righteous response to white clergy, in** whelmed, and focusing, in a child's eluding my own rabbi. They had; self-referential way, on the youngest asked him to call off the demonstra^ victim, Denise McNair — who, like tions, arguing that moderate white me, was 11. I never knew her, but at leaders could more peacefully move* some level I must have seen her as the city forward. my proxy. I remember trying to un­ My younger son burst into tears kr derstand why something so hideous a room displaying film footage: of • had happened to her, since grown­ demonstrators, including children,; ups kept saying it wouldn't happen to being blasted into buildings with fire: me. They had a simple explanation, hoses and attacked by police dogs ^S which even then didn't seem simple: I exactly what I'd seen on television am white. with my parents. We went outside,-, It now amazes me that for all my AP and I tried to comfort him. But he. identification with Denise, I don't re­ Carved faces of .children from Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham's kept crying. Then I was crying, too.' member crying for her. I wonder if Civil Rights District face the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He wanted to know why. It's good- the distance between us, officially that we're crying, I told him. Not, known as segregation, anesthetized No, I said. 'Then why do they have have to watch Huntley-Brinkley to see enough white people cried when this; me. That feeling came back to me the different water fountains?'" Next to what's happening here because my happened, and that's one reason why other night as I watched those two this, my mother had written, "Why in­ newspaper won't tell me!" Night after it kept happening. wrinkled former BQansmen being deed?" night, we saw our notorious public Our response, of course, was only, human. These prosecutions are only; marched into court — 37 years after My parents and a number of my safety commissioner, Eugene "Bull" the fact — for allegedly participating Connor, and his troops releasing po­ human, too. It was inhuman to drop i friends' parents strongly opposed seg­ the bombing investigation in the- in the bombing. I had the strange regation. I learned shortly before my lice dogs on demonstrators and pum- sensation that they'd been prisoners meling them with water from fire 1960s, and again in the 1970s and. father died in 1993 that he had quit 1980s. Most of the current evidence' of a sort all along, prisoners of a his job as a professor at the local hoses. mind-set that warped everyone white, was in hand in 1977, when then-state medical school in the 1950s when he attorney general William Baxley won: from Klansmen to my liberal parents was ordered to stop addressing black InnOCent to young children like me. a murder conviction against one of: patients by proper names, instead of the suspected bombers, Robert "Dy-^ made-up nicknames, as was the prac­ I came to see myself over the years namite Bob" Chambliss. Permeating mentality tice. My godfather lost his job at a lo­ as innocent of the evil around which I, On our journey to Birmingham, my. cal bank for advocating the integra­ grew up. Raising children of my own boys and I visited a statue of King that It's hard to convey how permeating tion of its white and colored has given me another perspective. stands at the heart of what is now this mentality was. Our grocery store, elevators. I've tried hard to explain the Birming­ called Birmingham's Civil Rights Dis­ like every public place, had two water And yet my parents bought a house ham of my youth to my two sons — trict, which includes the institute, Six­ fountains, side by side. When I was in in an all-white, affluent district incor­ and, in the process, to myself. A few teenth Street Baptist Church and the first grade, and far from a proficient porated in 1954, the same year the years ago, this took us to the city's park where the marchers met and or­ reader, I decoded the signs over the Supreme Court ruled school segrega­ Civil Rights Institute and its remark­ ganized every morning in 1963.T was: fountains to say "white" and "colder." tion unconstitutional in Brown v. able museum of the era. struck by the inscription at the base1 I remember drinking from the colder Board of Education. I saw nothing in­ My boys, then 6 and 9, were of the statue: "His dream liberated one (who wouldn't?), and then, out of congruous about this at the time — shocked by the Barriers Gallery, fea­ Birmingham from itself." I took it,j curiosity, the white one. They tasted after all, they were my parents, I was turing two water fountains — they very personally, to mean that the civil: the same. Perplexed, I again sampled their child, and what was wrong with had no trouble reading the labels rights movement liberated whites as1 one, then the other, until I was vio­ sending me to the best-endowed pub­ "colored" and "white" — and texts of well as blacks from the separate- lently yanked away by a woman who lic school system in Alabama? local segregation ordinances: "It shall worlds in which we were trapped. demanded, "Where is your mother?" be unlawful for a Negro and white The liberation of Birmingham goes We found her, and this stranger de­ When the civil rights movement person to play together or in com­ came to Birmingham in spring 1963, on. The prosecution of Thomas E. ; clared, "Your daughter was drinking pany with each other in any game of Blanton Jr. and ' from the colored fountain!" the city's newspapers downplayed the cards, dice, dominoes, checkers, marches. — whatever the outcome — is part of', I don't remember what came next, baseball, softball, football or basket­ it. So are we all. but years later, I discovered a journal The editors told readers they feared ball." Also: "It shall be unlawful to my mother had kept of my brother's that graphic coverage might incite vi­ conduct a restaurant or other place and my choice words as children. olence. They were denounced by seg­ for the serving of food in the city at Dale Russakoffis a reporter on the, Here is what she wrote of that day: regationists and civil rights leaders which white and colored people are national staff of The Washington "Dale asked, 'Do colored people taste alike. I remember my father raging as served in the same room." Post. things different from white people?' he turned on the national news: "I They became visibly upset in the Pa I § fe2StS2& • Chief Counsel in suits to integrate the University of Alabama - Arthurine Lucy vs. the University of Alabama; Pictorials Of*e<§ Pictorials • Counsel for James Hood and Vivian Malone ur D ore in their struggle to be admitted to the University of rthur Davis Shores was the early 1940s, he handled an extensive caseload. THE FIRST ANNUAL Alabama; born to Pauline Ray Yet, his practice wasn't limited to Alabama, and cases • Counsel for Dr. Martin Luther King et al in and Richard Shores, included Brown vs Board of Education, equal pay the Montgomery Bus Boycott, State of Alabama September 25, 1904, for teachers in South Carolina, and even the U.S. vs. the NAACP; in Trevellick, Alabama. Supreme Court. He represented such civil rights • Counsel for F. L. Shuttlesworth et al vs. He rose from humble pioneers as Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr., Autherine Arthur D. City of Birmingham and Birmingham Transit beginnings to great heights using his two greatest Lucy, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Vivian Malone Company; weapons; the law and his ability and belief in Jones. He was responsible for successfully filing a • First African American to pass the Alabama the communication process. His respect and case for voting rights in 1938. In 1942, he fought for Bar in two decades; interpretation of the law would serve all on an equal and won pay equity for Black teachers in Jefferson • Won the right to vote for many Jefferson basis. His communication skills poured forth a basic County, Alabama. County citizens; sense of human concern and decency. Mr. Shores has received many awards and • In 1947, he filed the first suit in Birmingham •ft to enforce the right of Blacks to vote; Mr. Shores attended the Tennessee Coal and honors. In 1940 he was given the Southern Beauty Iron School (T.C. & I.). Upon completing Industrial Congress Award for Eminent Leadership in the • Trailblazer in civil rights and governmental Arthur D. Shores arguing Voter Registration Case - Selma Alabama. Justice Thurgood Marshall and A. D. Shores in Washington, D. C. affairs; High School (now A.H. Parker High School) Field of Civil Rights, and in 1948 the Omega Psi • "Dean of Black Attorneys in the State of in 1922, he enrolled at Talladega College, (AL), Phi Fraternity Award for outstanding achievement Program Alabama; " and, working his way through, and graduating cum laud in the field of Civil Rights. In 1954 the Omega A. D. Shores speaking on Voter Registration at a local Birmingham, Alabama church, • Lead counsel for the NAACP. in June, 1927. As a means of earning money for law Psi Phi Fraternity presented him the award for 1951 ADS Family picture - A. D. Shores, daughters Helen and Barbara, and wife Theodora 1948. • One of the founders of Omicron Lambda school as well as being of service to the community, Outstanding Lawyer in the fight for Civil Rights. SIXTEENTH STREET Chapter, Fraternity, Inc. he became a teacher in September, 1927. As a means The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity presented the His successes led to him being a target of hate of earning money for law school as well as being Alpha Medal of Honor in 1956 for Most Ordinary groups who bombed his home on two occasions. of service to the community, he became a teacher Distinguished and Meritorious Service in the Civil BAPTIST CHURCH Fron? Row, /. - R: Barbara Shores, Geraldine Bell, Judge Helen Shores Lee, and Linda Jones, Chair. Second Row - L-R: Jesse J.( ALewis, thir d attempt was made, but the device was in September, 1927, and later principal at Dunbar Rights Field. In I960 he received the C. Francis Addie Pugh, Helen George Heath, Odessa Wolfolk, Blanche Mitchell, Lydia Alexander, and Kirkwood Balton. found minutes before it was to detonate.) High School in Bessemer, Alabama. Stradford Award of the National Bar Association, His response to those who attempted to do He discovered the LaSalle Extension Program, for Inspiration to Fellow Lawyers and Rich harm to him and his family was, "I only did what a correspondence program which allowed him Contributions to the Legal Profession, and in 1965 was right." to receive a degree much more rapidly while the Cook County, Illinois Bar Association Award Shores day program scheduled to honor Shores is known, not only for his activities as FEBRUARY 11,2006 maintaining his position as principal at Dunbar for Twenty-five years of Outstanding Service in the a civil rights attorney, but he is also known as the A. D. Shores - Voter Registration Case - Selma, Alabama. Autherine Lucy and A. D. Shores in Shores' Law Library. the late Civil Rights Attorney High School. This diligence was rewarded in 1935 Legal Profession. In 1969 he received the National first elected Black official in the city, when he was Newspaper Publishing Association's Russwurm The Arthur D. Shores Day Planning a family man and devoted father, who; when faced when he received the L.L.B. degree from LaSalle elected to the Birmingham City Council. His first Award for recognition of outstanding achievement A. D. Shores, Committee has scheduled a Program honoring with life's choices, chose the road less traveled, and University. service on the Birmingham City Council was to and making possible a richer concept of Democratic Dr. Bryant, his life and legacy. Shores, a graduate of Parker made it possible for many to enjoy the successes The next hurdle was passing the Alabama fill an unexpired term. Later, he was elected in his Principles and Contributions for upholding those superintendent High School and Talladega College, led a stellar resulting from his sacrificial leadership. own right and served as President Pro Tem in his State Bar Examination, which Mr. shores passed in of Birmingham highest traditions considered as the ideal of the life of accomplishments, including many "firsts" Students in the local schools are invited to second term on the council, 1974-1978. 1937. As a newly practicing attorney, he faced many City Schools. "Greatness is one part char­ American Way of Life. In 1971 he received the in the professional and civic arenas. His training submit essays about Shores, which will be evaluated He was also involved in the business community forms of racial discrimination and resistance in his Governor Pioneer's Success Award from Jefferson State Junior "Big" Jim in law was acquired through LaSalle University, and winning essays will receive prizes. through his being one of the founders and former profession, but triumphed nonetheless. College, in 1977 the Distinguished Service Award Folsom, Dr. A. A. D. Shores Ribbon cutting at dedication of A. D. Shores Park, Honorable Richard Congressman Ben Erdreich and A. D. Shores, Washington, D.C. Picture of A. D. Shores, 1939. Chicago, Illinois. He practiced law at a time Shores began his law practice in the State of board member of Citizens Federal Savings Bank, It was during his tenure as principal of Dunbar, in law office Arrington, Mr. Charlie Pierce, A. D. Shores acter and is measured by from the Black Lawyers Association and the United G. Gaston and when there were only three Black attorneys in Alabama in 1937, and, at one time, he was the and the National Bank of Commerce. He was that he met his beloved Theodora Helen Warren. Mr.Afton Lee. in 1947. and grandchildren Damien and Danielle Larkin. Church Board for Homeland Ministries Award for the state, and he represented many causes of the only practicing African-American attorney in the also a member of the Birmingham Chamber of After a lengthy courtship, Theodora and Shores downtrodden. Shores was married to Theodora Service. In 1979 he was given the Humanitarian State of Alabama for ten years. He showed courage, Commerce. were married August 5, 1938. Through his long its possessors not so much Helen Warren and they were the parents of two Award by the National and Research Center and the and vision in the representation of his clients who • His religious affiliations were as follows: He career, he was supported in his efforts by his loving daughters, The Honorable Helen Shores Lee, Judge, faced racism, salary inequities, discrimination, and Eddie Fisher Award by the Alabama Association of .^H^oHlbHnHi was a member of the First Congregational Church, wife, Theodora. This marriage was blessed with two Jefferson County Circuit Court, Civil Division; other impingements against their freedom and Colleges and Universities. where he served as an Adult Sunday School daughters, Helen Glynn and Barbara Sylvia. by what they achieve for and, Barbara Shores, Assistant Director, Jefferson liberties because of their race and color. Some of Teacher. He was also a member of the Board of During the first 30 years of his 54-year practice, Mr. Shores' civil rights work on behalf of all County Office of Senior Citizens Service. his accomplishments are listed below: Directors, Board of Homeland Ministries of the Attorney Shores practiced all over the State of Alabamians is his living legacy for our State. He not The program will be held at Sixteenth Street • One of the NAACP lawyers associated in the United Church of Christ. Alabama-from the Tennessee line to the Gulf of only was a part of change during the Civil Rights themselves as by what they Baptist Church at 10 a.m., on February 11. Featured Brown vs. Board of Education, which, in 1954, Some of his political and civic involvements Mexico at Mobile Bay, and from the Mississippi Era, but he made it happen through his exceptional speaker on the program will be the Honorable legally ended segregated schools in the United included his being elected a Delegate to the achievement as a civil rights jurist. He is regarded as Horace Ward, Senior United States District Judge, States; National Democratic Convention (1968, 1972, borders to the Georgia limits. During the period one of the most brilliant and courageous pioneers in achieve for others, f Atlanta, Georgia. The program is free and open to • Successfully brought suits to equalize the 1976, & 1980); membership in the NAACP, roughly between 1940 and 1950, he was the lone the public. salaries of Black teachers in Jefferson County, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the Masons, and the voice in the wilderness defending the civil rights of jurisprudence and social justice in this country. He The overall purpose of the program is to create Alabama and in Columbia, South Carolina; Pythians, among others. Black people. He practiced civil rights law all over was a destiny changer; one who made a difference —Gilbert Ware and renew an awareness within the community of • Successfully brought suits to void Upon his retirement he spent countless hours the State of Alabama, during an era in which his life in human and race relations. His courage and Shores' accomplishments, and what they mean to discriminatory zoning laws in Birmingham and with his flower beds, and communicating with his was in constant jeopardy. He handled diverse cases persistence through the use of the law would have us today. Further, the committee hopes that young Huntsville, Alabama; many supporters and friends. He still maintained dealing with racial and social injustice in practically profound impact on the social justice system of the people will increase their knowledge of Shores as • Counsel for U.S. Senator Glen Taylor (Idaho) an office downtown and came in occasionally to all fields of endeavor; school segregation, voting State of Alabama, the South, the United States, and A. D. Shores Park Dedication with daughter Helen and Barbara and grandchildren Meeting with President Carter on the appointment to Judicial Commission. This an astute professional, a civic and business leader, in City of Birmingham vs. Glen Taylor; read his mail and keep up with local happenings. rights, equal pay for teachers, murder, assault, etc. indeed the world. Mr. Emory Jackson presents A.D. Shores the Honorarium Award for 28 years of Alpha Phi Alpha Christmas Dance and Recognition Awards presented to A. D. Shores, Robert, Damien, and Danielle. commission appointed the Honorable U. W. Clemon to the Federal Bench. service as president of the Progressive Democratic Council of Jefferson County -1969 As the only Black practicing attorney in Alabama in Noah Wills, Dr. Dowdell, Honorable Peter Hall for 50 years of service to Alpha PhiAlphi Fraternity, Inc. by the Omicron Lambda Chapter, 1985.

Arthur D. Shores PubTieafio [amiarv 19.2006 pi Pictorials OreS «oria's <$••

A. D. Shores with Mayor George Seibels and Dwight Burgess. Mayor Richard Arrington and A. D. Shores at dedication of the A. D. Shores Park.

Attorney David Hood presenting an award by the Jefferson County Progressive Governor Patterson presenting the State of Alabama Academy of Honor to A. D. Democratic Council to A. D. Shores - For more than a quarter of a century of fighting for Shores. equality and justice for all people. September 16, 1977. u Greatness is one part character and is measured by its possessors not so much by what they achieve for themselves as by what they achieve for others." —Gilbert Ware

The National Caucus and the Center on Black Aged, Inc. for Living Legacy Award presented for achievement.outstanding service and contribution to the Nation - October 13, 1988, Washington, Talladega College Graduation - receiving Honorary Doctorate - Dr. William Gayles, president, D. C. MayaAngelou, A. D. Shores, Dr. MaryS. Harper, Mrs. "Mama"Arnolta Williams, Dr. Carson Talladega College, and A. D. Shores. Henry, Lawanda Paige. THE FIRST ANNUAL D* SHORES DAY PROGRAM

HELD AT

Discussion with business leaders Dr. Richard Arrington, Dr. A. G. Gaston, A. D. Shores, Arthur Shores receives awards. SIXTEENTH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH and others. . 1530 6TH AVENUE * BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

Lawanda Paige and A. D. Shores, recipients of the Living Legacy Awards, Washington, D. C.Birmingham 1988. City Council, A. D. Shores, Richard Arrington, Don Hawkins, David Herring, "Doc" Overton, Russell Yarbrough. Seated: Angle Proctor Grooms, Nina Miglionico and Bessie Estell. FEBRUARY 11, 2006 10:00 A.M.

RECEPTION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE PROGRAM

BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

Award to Howard Heflin at Democratic Banquet, J. Richard Pearson, David Hood, Honorable Constance Motley, A. D. Shores, and others. Howard Heflin, David Herring, A. D. Shores. Birmingham City Council. Standing - Russell Yarbrough, David Vance, David Herring, Richard Arrington, "Doc" Overton. Seated: Arthur Shores, Nina Miglionica, Don Hawkins, Angie Proctor Grooms. Banquet at Talladega College. ADMISSION - FREE