Black Perspective: September 17, 2023

This week on The Black Perspective, we remember the deaths of four girls who lost their lives in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Esther Brown also speaks to the cast of A Different World, and Mimi Brown talks to Gospel Legend CeCe Winans.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's September seventeenth, and today weremember the sixtieth anniversary of the bombing of
the sixteenth Street Baptist Church, andwe visit with gospel legend CC winans those
stories and more. Welcome to theBlack Perspective. I'm your host, Mike
Islan. Welcome to the Black Perspective, a weekly community affairs program on the
Black Information Network featuring interviews and discussionson issues important to the black community.

(00:25):
At the top of the week,we commemorated the worst terrorist attack on American
soil, the twenty second anniversary ofthe nearly three thousand people killed during the
ninety eleven terrorist attacks. Now towardsthe end of the week, we remember
the deaths of four little girls killedsixty years ago. The Black Information Networks
Vanessa Tyler talks with the current pastorWhere it happened at Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist

(00:48):
Church. Hate came to church sixtyyears ago September fifteenth, nineteen sixty three,
at ten twenty two am before churchservices again, hate exploded. All
of a sudden, there was aloud noise and I became aware of glass
flying in from the windows that werein the room where we were, and

(01:11):
I remember shielding myself, not knowingwhat was going on, but a loud
noise and then the glass comes in, and receiving several cuts on my body
as a result of that. Notbeing aware of what had truly gone at
that moment, I remember falling tothe floor and looking around and seeing and

(01:33):
hearing the sounds of people screaming andhollering and just looking to try to see.
And there was dust that was everywhere. And when I regained my senses
about what was happening, I gotup and I started looking around. And
I had my sisters that were inthe church at that time, and I
began looking for them. I didn'tknow what had happened. I thought maybe

(01:55):
something electrical had gone off, Andthen occurred to me that perhaps some of
the things I had feared before,that we had been bombed, like so
many other churches I had heard hadbeen bombed before. Even at my age,
I knew there were bombings that occurred, and I thought, is that
what has happened here? And Icame out and I looked at me the

(02:17):
auditorium and there were people that werethey were running everywhere. I looked and
saw my sister under a table witha Sunday school teacher. I remember it
very well. Bishop James Lowe,a survivor, talking to MSNBC last year.
He was eleven years old when thechurch was bombed. When the smoke
cleared, for precious little black girlswere gone, Addie May Collins, Denise

(02:44):
McNair, Carol Robertson, and CynthiaWesley. The church still stands, and
in the pulpit of the historic SixteenthStreet Baptist Church today is Reverend Arthur Brice,
Reverend Price. Welcome to the BlackInformation Network. Thank you for having
me. We are commemorating sixty yearssince those little angels were murdered by klansmen.

(03:08):
Talk about how that tragedy still runsthrough the soul of the church.
Well sixty years ago we probably experiencedone of the most terrific axel on the
United States soil, where we haddomestic terrorism and take place that harmed our
valuable and most vulnerable. There waseighteen days after the march on Washington.

(03:31):
It was eighteen days after doctor Kingsaid he had a dream. It was
eighteen days after doctor King said hewanted his children not to be judged by
the color of their skin, butby the content of their character and the
response to the I have a dreamspeech. In Birmingham was the Bamba sixteenth
Street Baptist Church because the church hasserved as the headquarters for the Children's March

(03:53):
and in the early part of nineteensixty three, so on September fifteenth,
the children were supposed to lead worshipedthat day. It was right after Sunday
school. The Sunday School lesson thatday ironically was they Loved That Forgives and
Addie mccollins and niece McNair, Syphiand Westley and Carol Robinson were in the

(04:15):
bathroom getting ready for service, andalso Sarah Collins, the fifth little Earl
in there when the bomb went off. For those girls lost their lives and
Sarah Collins was blinded the one eyeand the world watched witness and wept over
that tragic event. People were angry. I'm there. Four girls lost their
lives. People were angry at thechurch with bomb. But they turned their

(04:36):
anger into action, and their actioninto activism, and the activism got the
Civil Rights Act passed in nineteen sixtyfour. There are many people still alive
who remember that day and who knewthe girls. Now you spent time in
upstate New York where you went toDivinity school. You have a criminal justice

(04:56):
degree and worked in that field.What Drew knew to burn him into the
sixteenth Street Church, Well, whatDrew mean to Birmingham was the was the
church. The church was in searchof a pastor and they were they were
searched for a pastor that would bringministry to the to the church because I
believe the church was being more knownfor being the museum than the ministry.

(05:20):
And six nineteen sixty three is justone part of the history of the sixteen
Street Baptist Church. This church hasbeen around for one hundred and fifty years
this year. Organized in eighteen seventythree, ten years after the Emancipation Proclamation,
a group of African American former slaves, one of the church where it
could be affirmed to not blend itstarted the first Baptist church for colored people.

(05:44):
The church that sits on this sitetoday was designed by a black man,
Wallace Rayphield, the second practicing architectblack architect in the United States,
and was built by a black companyand played and paid for by black people.
And after one hundred of the years. A lot of things have come
and gone, but the sixteenth BaptistChurch still stands. We came here too

(06:04):
well to introduce ministry and let thechurch be no more for its ministry than
just being a museum. You alreadymentioned the history, and the bombing happened
during a time of change. Itwasn't the only bombing in the city.
Some were angry. At that time. Birmingham had a governor, Governor George

(06:28):
Wallace, who claimed to have achange of heart after its near assassination,
but before he was shot, heheld a reign of terror over black people
and did not believe in blacks mixingwith whites. Say segregation now and see

(06:49):
Reverend Price. You mentioned that thatchurch was the site for the children's gathering
for civil rights. Is that whythat church was a specially targeted Yes,
it was. Sixteen Street Baptist Churchserved at the headquarters for the Children's crusade
for the Children's March. That marchemulated out of the church was after doctor

(07:12):
King was arrested on Good Friday,and as Lieutenant said, let's get the
children involved. And you had primekings and prime queens and football stars and
cheerleaders, leaving school coming to thechurch learning how to be civilly disobedient,
learning strategies on non violence. Anddoctor King had a twofold strategy that was
to fill up every jail in Birmingham. As the children would leave the church

(07:35):
fifty at a time, it wasabout three thousand deep in the church.
Then they fifty at a time andthey were met with the fire hoses,
the dogs and the billy clubs andthey would put them in jail. And
once the Birmingham City jail was filled, then they went to the county jail.
Once that was filled, they madea makeshift jail at the fair grounds.
Once that was filled, they wentto Bessemer and put them in that

(07:58):
jail. So he filled them allthe jails with the children. And the
second initiative was to make sure thatthis was on this newly acquired invention called
television, because in nineteen sixty threethere was no Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook
or Twitter. So he wanted tomake sure that the country knew that there

(08:18):
were two Americas going on in Birmingham. And President Kennedy, who was a
little bit apprehensive about civil rights whenhe saw it on television, he sent
his brother down a brokered deal tomake sure that what was going on in
Birmingham would not be a part ofthe American story. We are remembering what
we should never forget, how hatetook the lives of four little girls in

(08:41):
Birmingham sixteenth Street Church, and weare honored to speak with the current pastor
of the historic church, Reverend ArthurPrice. Reverend Price, as you mentioned,
it was a catalyst because if whitepeople could be so bold to kill
in a church, blacks had tofight