Visitors come to Sixteenth Street Baptist Church from all over the world to not only stand on hallowed ground but to remember both the tragedy and triumphs that happened within its walls.
Starting this month, people will be able to pay their respects more viscerally.
Sept. 15, 56 years to the day that a bomb killed four little girls— Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson— a new interactive museum will open honoring the girls and the chain of events their murders set off in the Civil Rights Movement.
Earlier this year, the church completed its five-year restoration plan funded in part by a $150,000 grant won through the National Trust Main Street Fund Partners in Preservation competition. That work made it possible for it to move forward with the museum.
The centerpiece of the museum will be an experience room that will transport visitors back to the day of the bombing, according to Ted Debro, chair of church trustees said.
“You’ll get a chance to get a sense and feel for what really happened during that period in 1963 as well as feel and experience the bombing,” he said. “You’ll hear various sounds and noises of that Sunday, with flashing lights. You’ll also experience the clock that stopped in the church at 10:22 a.m.”
Debro said the eulogy that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave for three of the girls serves as a background for the room.
Visitors will also be reminded of the Sunday School lesson of Sept. 15, 1963, “A Love That Forgives.”
Afterward, they will be led through a video-heavy timeline of the church, which was founded in 1873, that leads up to present-day and the issues that the house of worship and its surrounding neighborhood faces, such as urban renewal, economic and business depletion, and struggle for space and identity in an expanding city center.
56th Memorial Observance of Church Bombing schedule
9:30 a.m. – Mass Sunday School
Lesson from U.S. Airforce Chaplain Lt. Col. Ruth N. Segres
10:22 a.m. -Tolling of the bells
Special Guest: Former V.P. Joe Biden
Worship Service
Sermon by Rev. Eric. S. C. Manning, Mother Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, S.C.
1 p.m. – Ribbon Cutting
Opening of museum
On a larger screen, there will be videos of testimonies from various people who were connected to the church during the earlier years.
“There will a be a lot of things going on in that basement and in that display,” Debro said.
Sharing the story of the bombing and the church’s role in the movement is a part of its mission, according to Debro.
“It’s part of our ministry, really, to tell the story and to really relate the story to scripture,” he said.
The ribbon-cutting on the museum is just one part of a larger remembrance for the girls.
Former Vice President and current presidential nominee Joe Biden will be on hand for the tolling of the church bells.
U.S. Air Force Chaplain, Lt. Col. Ruth N. Segres will deliver the Sunday School lesson from 1963, and Rev. Eric S. C. Manning of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston will conduct the 11 a.m. worship service.
A wreath-laying and ribbon-cutting for the museum will follow that afternoon.
Debro said it was important to include Manning and Biden in the program because they have both have a relationship with tragedy. A gunman killed nine people at Mother Emanuel during Bible study in 2015, and Biden lost his first wife and daughter in a car crash and later his son to cancer.
“We think it’s important to not only tell our story but to hear other stories that are pretty near our message, so we can all understand that we have to do a better job of working to make this world a better place,” he said.
Related News
-
Why we say yay to two-way streets
Filed Under: Developer, Downtown Birmingham, Filling Vacant Spaces, Front Page, Transportation, Yaysayers
REV Birmingham is a long-time advocate for making the switch to two-way streets downtown, and this is something recommended by planners studying our downtown for years. In fact, the team that developed the 2004 City Center Master Plan recommended many street changes but noted 4th Avenue North conversion should take place “immediately.” We believe this project is a catalytic moment for Birmingham – but you may find yourself wondering why that is.
-
The Key Tool for Urban Revitalization: Downtown BHM's Business Improvement District
Filed Under: Business-Proving, Developer, Downtown Birmingham, Front Page, Get Involved, Potential-Proving, Why BHM
By the time REV took on BID management in 2018, downtown had a new set of needs from its BID. Downtown Birmingham in the ‘90s had a population mainly of 9 to 5 employees. But the downtown of 2018 had a whole new population of residents and visitors throughout the day and night. We had new opportunities to create positive experiences, inviting them into more downtown businesses and public spaces, and to keep them coming back for more.
-
Introducing the six businesses that call Nextec home
Filed Under: Business-Proving, Developer, Downtown Birmingham, Filling Vacant Spaces, Front Page, Historic Preservation, Potential-Proving, Why BHM
On the corner of 3rd Avenue and 16th Street North, you’ll find Nextec, a redevelopment of the 90-year-old, 65,000-square-foot Edwards Motor Company building (also formerly known as the Sticks ‘N’ Stuff building). With experience in historic renovation, developer Michael Mouron, chairman of Capstone Real Estate Investments, began this civic project in 2021 as a space for business startups to continue their work in the Magic City – a function encouraged by REV Birmingham.