#NeverForget the #4LittleGirls who were murdered at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on this day in 1963

#SayTheirNames

#CarolDeniseMcNair

#AddieMaeCollins

#CaroleRobertson

#CynthiaWesley

Funerals[edit]

Carole Rosamond Robertson was laid to rest in a private family funeral held on September 17, 1963.[47] Reportedly, Carole's mother, Alpha, had expressly requested her daughter be buried separately from the other victims due to her distress at a remark Martin Luther King had made in which he (King) said the mindset that had allowed the murder of the four girls was the "apathy and complacency" of black people in Alabama.[48]

The service for Carole Rosamond Robertson was held at St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church. In attendance were 1,600 people. At this service, the Reverend C. E. Thomas addressed the congregation, informing them: "The greatest tribute you can pay to Carole is to be calm, be lovely, be kind, be innocent."[49] Carole Robertson was buried in a blue casket at Shadow Lawn Cemetery.[50]

On September 18, the funeral of the three other girls killed in the bombing was held at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. Although no city officials attended this service,[51]present at the girls' funerals were an estimated 800 clergymen of all races. Also present was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In a speech conducted before the burial of the girls, Dr. King addressed an estimated 3,300[52] mourners—including numerous white people—with a speech which included: "This tragic day may cause the white side to come to terms with its conscience. In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not become bitter ... We must not lose faith in our white brothers. Life is hard. At times as hard as crucible steel, but, today, you do not walk alone."[53]

As the girls' coffins were led to their graves, Dr. King ordered that those present remain solemn and forbid any singing, shouting or demonstrations. These instructions were relayed to the crowd present by a single youth with a bullhorn.[54] At the time of the funerals, two of those critically injured in the bombing were still hospitalized, as was a 16-year-old white teenager named Dennis Robertson, who had been hit on the head with a brick thrown by a black youth as Robertson cycled home from his job.[47][55]

#WhiteTerror  #BlackPain 

Again, the reason I oppose the republican party has nothing to do with me being a democrat, and I don't oppose republicans just to support democrats. I oppose republicans because the people who perpetrated the 16th Street Baptist Church bombings and other terrorist acts joined the GOP.

#NeverForget Birmingham Sunday

Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley vs the KKK #BlackHistoryMonth2016

Forty Years ago this week, a democratic Attorney General in Sweet Home Alabama cared more about doing his job, than keeping his job.   That Democratic Attorney General was Bill Baxley.

In 1970, Bill Baxley became the youngest person in the United States to hold a state attorney generalship. Within one week of being sworn in as Attorney General of Alabama, 29-year-old Baxley reopened the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. “Now I could do what I had sworn to do,” he remembers thinking. “Within two months in office I had set one goal for myself: to solve that bombing case.”

 

As you can imagine the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) wasn't to happy with Bill Baxley.  Our rich southern history teaches us the worst thing you can do is stand up for the rights of black folks. 

 the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) dubbed Alabama’s then-attorney general an “honorary nigger” and basically threatened to kill him. 29-year-old AG Billy Baxley promptly issued his response on official State of Alabama letterhead: “kiss my ass.”

Former Democratic Attorney General Bill Baxley is one of the unsung heroes who need to be acknowledged for their contributions during #BlackHistoryMonth. Not only did he get justice for the victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, he appointed the state's first African American assistant attorney general, Myron Thompson, who later became a U.S. District Judge.

Again

the reason I oppose the republican party has nothing to do with me being a democrat, and I don't oppose republicans just to support democrats. I oppose republicans because the people who perpetrated the 16th Street Baptist Church bombings and other terrorist acts joined the GOP.

RedEye

#WhiteTerror #BlackPain #SayTheirNames #CarolRoberston #DeniseMcNair #CynthiaWesely #AddieMaeCollins

Denise McNair, Carol Robinson, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley Resting in Heavenly Peace

Again, the reason I oppose the republican party has nothing to do with me being a democrat, and I don't oppose republicans just to support democrats. I oppose republicans because the people who perpetrated the 16th Street Baptist Church bombings and other terrorist acts joined the GOP.

Does this sound familiar?

Back in 1966, after an election in which, having won voting rights after the
1965 Selma to Montgomery March, in which I lost two dear friend, Rev Jim
Reeb and Viola Liuzzo, blacks rushed to register to vote and to run for office, most considered themselves to be Democrats . Gov Wallace (a democrat) refused to allow them to run for office as Democrats. To combat the continuing absolute racism of the Alabama Democratic Party, some of us created another Democratic Party, the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA), went through a difficult struggle, and elected the first blacks to office in Alabama as Democrats! But the ADP fought as a fully segregated party for almost 10 years as the NDPA came to hold over 100 elected offices,more than any other state!!! Then and only then did the ADP want us, and we forgivingly moved into the ADP. But of course its leadership remained fully racist and we have been struggling to change that ever since. But racists continued to run for and hold office as Democrats. It never fully changed. That makes it clear why people are still very suspicious of attitudes in the ADP.

Prior to the the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Nixons' Southern Strategy, these people were loyal democrats, then the Democratic Party split along sectional lines in the aftermath and the republicans reached out to the disaffected Southern Democrats, encouraging them to join the GOP. The party did not change the Dixiecrats, the Dixiecrats changed the party.

When Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 voting Rights Act, he said “there goes the Democratic Party in the South.” How right he was."What ever political party draws it's strength from these people is the party I'm going to work to defeat. " 

Are you with us, or are you with them?

That is the question.