On the 62nd anniversary of the 1963 bombing, a new center opens beside 16th Street Baptist Church — and Birmingham confronts its past to shape its future.
By Tanna M. McGuire
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It began as a Sunday like any other. On Sept. 15, 1963, four girls slipped into the basement of 16 th Street Baptist Church in their Sunday best. Minutes later, a bomb planted by Ku Klux Klan members tore through the wall and killed them.
Addie Mae Collins. Denise McNair. Carole Robertson. Cynthia Wesley. Four names. One morning. A wound the nation could not look away from…