Hello revolutionaries! Today marks an important day in history, a day of remembrance. Remembrance of four little girls who got their lives snatched away from them by hate. Hatred from the color of their skin, the curls in their hair, and the thick lips on their face. A hate so petty, it tends to be unbelievable. Then you open your eyes and see these four faces and the grief stricken ones that belong to their parents and you believe.
September 15th was just another Sunday to Addie Mae Collins, Carole Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Another Sunday of waking up, putting on their Sunday attire and heading to the 16th Street Baptist Church. Nothing new, nothing special, a simple Sunday routine to them. They met in the church, exchanged small talk until Sunday school began, having no knowledge that their lives would be taken away. They were totally oblivious to the fact that there were 15 sticks of timed dynamite that was about to blow under the stairs that they have run up and down quite often.
September 15th was just another Sunday to Addie Mae Collins, Carole Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Another Sunday of waking up, putting on their Sunday attire and heading to the 16th Street Baptist Church. Nothing new, nothing special, a simple Sunday routine to them. They met in the church, exchanged small talk until Sunday school began, having no knowledge that their lives would be taken away. They were totally oblivious to the fact that there were 15 sticks of timed dynamite that was about to blow under the stairs that they have run up and down quite often.
I wonder...I wonder if Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry would have planted those 15 sticks of dynamite under the stairs of the church if they knew that it would be taking the lives of four young innocent souls. Better yet, I wonder if they cared. I wonder what the girls said before the bomb went off. I wonder what Sarah Collins, the sister of Addie Mae Collins thought when she called out for her sister, only to be returned with a heavy silence. I wonder how people can be filled with such hate towards someone due to simply having the "wrong" skin color.
I close my eyes and speak their names. I speak to these four souls that came before me, the four girls that were my age when they faced their untimely death. I remember them. I remember their names, the names that are forever etched in my mind. I will never forget the names that are engraved on a tombstone that many eyes have wandered over. I will tell the little bit of their story I know, for it is an important one. I promise them that I will not let them die in vain. I will spread the innocence and joy they had, but most importantly I will spread their hope. The hope they went into the church with, but vanished by the hatred of the people that plotted their murders. I only ask one favor of anyone reading this...remember their names.
Addie Mae Collins.
Carole Robertson.
Cynthia Wesley.
Carole Denise McNair.
Remember September 15th, 1963.
Remember them.
I close my eyes and speak their names. I speak to these four souls that came before me, the four girls that were my age when they faced their untimely death. I remember them. I remember their names, the names that are forever etched in my mind. I will never forget the names that are engraved on a tombstone that many eyes have wandered over. I will tell the little bit of their story I know, for it is an important one. I promise them that I will not let them die in vain. I will spread the innocence and joy they had, but most importantly I will spread their hope. The hope they went into the church with, but vanished by the hatred of the people that plotted their murders. I only ask one favor of anyone reading this...remember their names.
Addie Mae Collins.
Carole Robertson.
Cynthia Wesley.
Carole Denise McNair.
Remember September 15th, 1963.
Remember them.