In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

217 19 Four Funerals In the a#ermath of the bombing, reporters from all over the country converged upon Birmingham for the funerals of the young victims. National and international aention focused on the four young girls brutally killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. The loss of innocent young lives, the images of crisp white dresses and new patent leather shoes violated by the blast, evoked both pathos and horror. How could senseless violence desecrate a house of worship? Who could place dynamite where it would obliterate unsuspecting children? A#er forty-seven bombings in Birmingham since 1947, these four girls became the first fatalities. Previous explosions had destroyed homes, businesses, and churches. The people targeted had been injured but not killed. Almost lost in the press coverage and national outpourings of grief and recrimination, the two young boys killed that same Sunday became forgoen footnotes to the central tragedy of September 15, 1963. A#er visiting the families of all six victims, Dad aended all four funerals. He took part in the funeral services for Carole Robertson, Johnnie Robinson, and Virgil Ware—the only white person to do so. The Robertson family resisted Martin Luther King’s appeal for a single funeral service for the four girls killed in the church blast. Alpha Robertson said: “We realize Carole lost her life because of the movement, but we feel her loss was personal to us.” On Tuesday a#ernoon, September 17, Fred Shulesworth joined Reverend John Cross of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in leading Carole Robertson’s funeral. As Dad noted the next day: “An orderly, restrained crowd of some 2,000 Negroes and more than 100 whites filled the St. John’s A.M.E. Church and lined the sidewalks outside yesterday to pay tribute to one of the four Negro children killed in Sunday’s bombing of a Negro church.” At the same time, Dad reported: 218 shattered glass in birmingham The leader of a small militant white racist group which has stirred up much of Birmingham’s school integration trouble says Sunday’s bombing of a Negro church here is ‘wrecking the segregationist cause.’ Edward R. Fields said he expected to be indicted, along with other members of the National States Rights Party who led demonstrations around the city’s three integrated schools, and charged he was the victim of ‘a frame up by the Kennedys.’ Birmingham police disclosed that two white teen-agers charged with shooting a Negro boy to death were traced as a result of their participation in school demonstrations fostered by the National States Right Party. Merchants are concerned with crises. Racial unrest and violence cause sales to decline. The following day, September 18, Martin Luther King Jr. led the funeral service for the other three victims of the church bombing. My parents both aended this funeral. As Dad reported: “Mourning three bombing victims, more than 6,000 Negroes jammed Sixth Avenue Baptist Church Wednesday for the combined funerals of the three young girls.” During the funeral service, Dad’s friend Reverend Joseph Ellwanger— leader of the Birmingham chapter of the Alabama Council—read the Scripture and prayed that the Kingdom of God would come to Birmingham. In his sermon, Dr. King called the dead girls “unoffending, innocent, beautiful children of God.” He declared: “They have something to say to every minister of the Gospel who has remained silent behind the sanctuary of the stained glass windows.” The girls were “heroines of a modern crusade.” Mom told us about the funeral for the three girls, Denise, Cynthia, and Addie Mae. “I went into the service and the place was packed,” she said. “I sat down and I felt kind of lost, because the church was huge and I was just one lile person siing there. Right away Jim was called out to talk to one of the important NBC newsmen. And I was annoyed because I had to sit there all by myself among strangers. I didn’t know when he was going to come back. I didn’t know what was going to happen. And I had a fear that somebody might bomb that church where we were. So I sat there a long time, and finally he slipped into the seat and sat down and the service began.” “I really didn’t know what was going on,” Mom said. “It seemed confusing, and I felt so helpless and sad.” She turned...

Share