Birmingham remembers 4 little girls 50 years after infamous church bombing

Dave Martin, Associated Press

Churchgoers attend services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the church by Ku Klux Klan members that killed four young girls on Sept. 15, 1963, and became a landmark moment in the civil rights struggle.

By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News

Fifty years ago Sunday, a bomb detonated beneath the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls — and galvanizing the civil rights movement.

In commemoration of the deaths, the city of Birmingham hosted a week-long docket of events in remembrance of the tragedy that led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Sunday is the culmination of the events, titled "Empowerment Week."

A bomb set by the Ku Klux Klan at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963 killed four girls and injured many more. Today, the Birmingham church stands as a witness to the violence and suffering that erupted during the civil rights era. NBC's Sarah Dallof reports.

"It is a sad story, but there is a joy that came out of it," said Sarah Collins Rudolph, who survived the Sept. 15, 1963 blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church.

Her 14-year-old sister, Addie Mae Collins, was among the victims of the bomb planted by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

On Sunday, at 10:22 a.m. CT, the time of the blast, the church's bell tolled in remembrance of Collins, 11-year-old Denise McNair, and Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, both 14.

The church service, which included the exhortation to "love your enemies" — the same verses read 50 years ago, started a day of activities throughout the city, both remembering the tragedy and celebrating the civil-rights laws that resulted from it.

"What would you do if you could get your hands on that Blanton dude who bombed the church?" asked Pastor Arthur Price at the church's Sunday school class. The Christian answer, he said, is to practice "the love that forgives."

The 1964 Civil Rights Act that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion or gender also brought an end to the Jim Crow laws that had enforced rigid segregation practices across much of the southeastern United States.

Less than three weeks after his "I Have A Dream Speech" an angry Martin Luther King Jr. reacts to the Sept. 15, 1963 murder of four young girls in Birmingham, Ala. He calls on blacks to get more involved in the struggle for civil rights.

The Klansmen involved in the church bombing were convicted years later. One remains imprisoned.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had been a childhood playmate of one of the victims, and former Congressman and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young are to speak at a 3 p.m. CT ceremony focusing on the progress in race relations in the decades since and looking at the challenges that remain.

Scores of songs, plays and odes have been penned since the bombing in honor of the four girls. Lauded musicians Joan Baez and Bruce Springsteen have mentioned the bombing in their music. In 1997, director Spike Lee made the documentary film 4 Little Girls about the murder. The film was nominated for an academy award.

Less than a month after his "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reacted to the murders and cast blame on the complacent.

“What murdered these four young girls was the negro business and professional individual who’s more concerned about his job than he’s concerned about freedom and justice,” he said.

Celebrated as martyrs in the history of civil rights, the four bombing victims were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor bestowed on civilians, after President Barack Obama signed into law H.R. 360 in May to posthumously recognize the sacrifice of the four girls.

On Thursday, the families were given replicas of the medal, which pictures the four girls, the church and their names. In the center the medal states, "Pivotal in the struggle for equality," said Rosie Rios, who as treasurer of the United States oversees the U.S. Mint, which minted the medals.

Saturday's events will conclude with a concert by American Idol season four winner and Birmingham native Taylor Hicks and fireworks at Railroad Park in Birmingham.

Reuters contributed to this report