Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley were murdered when their church was bombed on September 15, 1963. The large, prominent edifice, 16th Street Baptist Church is located downtown near Birmingham’s commercial district and City Hall. Built in 1911, this sanctuary served as the headquarters for civil rights mass meetings and rallies.
At one time, Birmingham was the most segregated city in the United States. (I wonder how that fact was documented.) Las Vegas was segregated to the extent that most, if not all Blacks lived on the Westside gradually moving into North Las Vegas before integration took place in 1960.
Birmingham’s focused desegregation campaign had taken place in the spring of 1963 and was a vicious fight. Students ranging from 8 years of age to eighteen were met by police who arrested thousands of children. The Sunday of the bombing was Youth Day at the church. I imagine that the excitement tinged with jittery nerves must have been thick in the air as young people prepared to take part in the adult service…