This week on September 15 is the 60th anniversary of one of the most horrific events of the modern Civil Rights Movement. In Birmingham, AL the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed and four innocent girls were killed. The church served as the primary headquarters for participants in the Birmingham campaign to desegregate public facilities. The pictures posted above and the first video posted below provide images and information about that sad and tragic day. I especially want to call your attention to the second video posted below. It is the speech given by a white lawyer named Charles Morgan Jr. to the all white Young Men’s Business Club in Birmingham the day after the bombing. The core message of the speech is summarized in the following quote, “Who did it? Who threw that bomb? The answer should be ‘We all did it’” He continues with a powerful reflection on the atmosphere of racism developed by the white community over decades that formed the foundation for this and other acts racist hatred and violence. That atmosphere of white supremacy had become an accepted “way of life” that went largely unchallenged by the vast majority of white citizens in general and the vast majority of white Christians and churches in particular. As the result of this speech, Charles Morgan Jr. and his family received multiple death threats that caused them to move from Birmingham. He went on to commit his life and vocation as a lawyer to working on civil rights cases.
Please take the time to listen and reflect on his speech.
Although the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church seems like distant history to many people today, the increase in racial hate crimes over the past few years reminds us that the words of Charles Morgan, Jr. still ring true today, “We all did It.” Accepting racial disparities in our society and leaving racist language and policies unchallenged are the foundations for racial violence today. It is not enough to say we don’t actively support or participate in contemporary forms of racism. Deepening both our awareness of the forms racism takes today and our commitment to working together to challenge them is the only way to respond to the reality that “We all did it.”