Published in the Westchester Guardian, October 2014
Addie Mae Collins (14), Carol Denise McNair (11), Cynthia Diane Wesley (14) and Carole Robertson (14) – forgotten names of four young girls killed by blinding, disgusting hatred – victims of the Birmingham, Alabama, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing. On September 15, 1953, bigotry in all its ugliness struck a dagger into the American soul, barely a month after his I have a Dream’ Speech. Three days later, Reverend King delivered the eulogy in the midst of confusion, shock, sadness and more riots.
Birmingham where bombings were so frequent that the city was called ‘Bombingham’. This Church was the center of civil rights activities and the bombing was the third in the eleven days after a court order mandated school integration A week before the murders, Governor George Wallace was quoted in the NY Times that Alabama needed a “few first class funerals” to stop integration. Over eight thousand people and eight hundred clergy – of all races-attended the funeral uniting against hatred showing the dark side of this nation what America can really stand for.
“This afternoon we gather …. to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God.” This man of God invokes these four as children of God in the very first sentence, thereby proclaiming all of us God’s children, all of us as brothers and sisters. The bigots did not proclaim African-Americans or any non-white as human therefor not part of God’s family. This one sentence unites us all. And these children, from God, have entered eternity from which they came – like every single human being who ever conceived. The first paragraph unites our dysfunctional society.
The introductory paragraph ends with, “the curtain falls…their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed to that eternity from which they came.” Their roles fulfilled, God has called them back to where they and we belong. Their existence has not ended, something deeper remains – their true essence – their souls.
So much more could have been said. So much anger could have spewed from that pulpit. A justified anger from decades, generations of mistreatment that today seems so alien to many, but not all. The Reverend could have easily launched our fragile nation into a racial war whose scars would never heal, but he went beyond this physical plane to the deeper unseen world. We were fortunate for such demeanor. He knew hate causes/creates more hate.
“They are martyred heroines of a holy crusade….” reinforces that their struggles and sacrifices have Biblical roots and connotes that our struggles, fights and sacrifices will continue.
A challenge is laid bare to those seemingly ambivalent to the American racial tragedy by declaring their deaths meaningful. The bombing has sent a message to every facet of society, every politician, Dixiecrats, right-wing northern Republicans, every passive Negro. “They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to each of us that we must be concerned…about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.” Where is our Christian faith? We are all accountable. Our system must be challenged not just in 1963 but today, tomorrow, by every generation – a democracy can never rest on past laurels of success.
I have heard it said that God can create good out of evil. History and faith can point to such in our times. “The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland from the low road of man’s inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood. These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience.” Today, there is a more sublime discrimination. Overtness has been replaced by subtle acts of the conscience and sub-conscience by both the individual and society.
Faith and hope for both the individual and society, on all levels of the psyche must be sought and obtained. Violence is the result when methods of communication fails, hope fails and faith in reason no longer exists. “….in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor …the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided…. can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.” The Reverend is virtually pleading against the voices of retaliation in his own quarter, knowing that such actions are never a means to an end. Hate begets hate. Violence begets violence. But protest occurred later that Sunday.
The second half of the eulogy focuses on the greatest horror a parent can experience – the loss of a child. Unnecessary, useless platitudes are wasted words and Reverend King confirms, “It is almost impossible to say anything that can console you at this difficult hour and remove the deep clouds of disappointment which are floating in your mental skies.” Maybe Christianity’s affirmation that death is not the end is of some comfort. It is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. “Death is…an open door which leads man into life eternal.” Death is the great equalizer, one cannot hide from it and one cannot escape judgment.
Loneliness, the desolation of these losses should not be the way of your morning and quantity of years has nothing to do with quality. He speaks of the harshness life offers amid its beauty and how this beauty and pain are, “Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons.”
The final paragraph continues for as parents they must be proud, “No greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died.” – “between the sacred walls of the church of God….discussing the meaning of love.”
Protest followed and two more African-American males were killed that day. One was shot by a policeman; the other was shot while riding a bicycle in a residential neighborhood. (Names are remembered only by their families). The National Guard was called in to restore order and it was reported that the FBI under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover withheld evidence from the prosecution. Two months later, President Kennedy was assassinated. The history books for the young African-American of today can represent nothing but a series of struggles, lies and disappointments.
He never condemns the destroyers of life to eternal damnation, but raises up the victims and paraphrases Shakespeare, “Good night, sweet princesses. Good night, those who symbolize a new day. And may the flight of angels take thee to thy eternal rest. God Bless.”
Notes: The funeral was for three of the four children. The family of the fourth victim of hate, Carole Robinson, held a small, separate, private service.
The written version is different from the audio version. Three paragraphs were omitted/edited from the audio broadcast or possibly Dr. King for some reason did not include the entirety of what he had written.
#1201
Glenn Slaby Blog