Call To Remembrance: “Birmingham Sunday” . September 15th Weekend FOUR GIRLS JUBILEE: Ring Bells for Addie Mae, Carole, Cynthia, & Denise Saturday, September 14th - Sunday, September 15th NATIONWIDE and INTERNATIONAL 50 years ago on Sunday morning, September 15, 1963 four precious girls, Addie Mae Collins, 14, Carole Robertson, 14, Cynthia Wesley, 14, & Denise McNair, 11, were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan’s terrorist bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. What has since been called “Birmingham Sunday” marked a vital turning point in the Civil Rights Movement.( Joan Baez sings “Birmingham Sunday”: youtube/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE) CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR . SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 On Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at the United States Capitol, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley (left to right in photo) were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest civilian honor, received by members of their families. pbs.org/newshour/video/index.html The grief and anger sparked the all-out, nonviolent voting rights campaign that produced the 1965 Voting Rights Act—recently debilitated by the Supreme Court. The movement’s courageous nonviolent response also helped ensure passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. We call on all Americans, of all ages, colors, and creeds, to find a fitting way to honor the four girls, on or around this Sunday, September 15, that looks toward how our pressing goals of racial, economic, and environmental justice can be attained. And how, specifically, we can get going, keep going, on this journey NOW. Let’s make the weekend of September 15th a moment of hope, vision, and commitment—a time to make history in the here and now! HOUSES OF WORSHIP: We ask in particular if churches that meet this Sunday morning could ring their bells or chimes FOUR TIMES on September 15th at 10:22 AM (if possible), the moment of the bombing that literally stopped the clock forever in the Birmingham church sanctuary. And for the minister or lay person to call out the names of the four girls, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, & Denise McNair. We ask if synagogues and mosques that gather on this weekend can find a moment to ring bells in the girls’ memory or do another form of remembrance, perhaps a talk, sermon, or song. Saturday, September 14 is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Half a century after the horror of Birmingham Sunday, we have an opportunity this weekend to commemorate these four lost lives and to (re)commit ourselves to the aims of racial and economic justice for which they died. We know that racial and economic justice are more entwined than ever, the “malignant kinship” of race and class. Here are a few other suggestions for how colleges, schools, community groups, and places of worship might choose to commemorate “Birmingham Sunday” and the sacrifices of all of the foot soldiers in the Civil Rights Movement throughout the rest of this year: Our website fourgirlsjubilee offers a free online Discussion Guide that participants can use, or adapt freely, for facilitated discussions. 1.) Facilitated dialogues on racial, economic, and/or environmental justice, culminating in action plans 2. )Specific dialogues and action plans on current issues such as: voting rights suppression; mass incarceration of African Americans and Latinos (the “new Jim Crow”); global slavery; sweatshop labor; immigrants’ rights; violence against youth of color & against women and girls; joblessness; age discrimination; retirement; family debt burdens, esp. student debt 3.) Film showings (e.g., Spike Lee’s “Four Little Girls”) followed by dialogue FOR MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES: Visit fourgirlsjubilee or StewartBurnsHistory. About Stewart Burns: Civil rights historian & nonviolent activist, author of “‘We Will Stand Here Till We Die’: Freedom Movement Shakes America, Shapes Martin Luther King Jr.” MLK biographer (“To the Mountaintop”), former editor of King Papers at Stanford, co-founder, Center for Learning in Action, Williams College Email [email protected] what you are planning to do and send a brief recap afterwards to post on the website for others to see and appreciate. --- On a personal note- I know that this is pretty last minute. That said, I would appreciate it if you can help circulate this far and wide. Stewart Burns is a long-time friend of mine dating back to when we both attended a 1968 session at the former Institute for the Study of Nonviolence in Carmel Valley, CA run by Joan Baez and Ira Sandperl (1923-2013). Thank so much. Mandy Carter . Durham, North Carolina.
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 13:46:42 +0000
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