Dr. King's Eulogy for the Young Bombing Victims 9/18/1963!

Eulogy For The Young Victims
Of The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing

by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
September 18, 1963, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama

[Delivered at funeral service for three of the children -
Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley - killed in the bombing.
A separate service was held for the fourth victim, Carole Robertson.]

This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed back to that eternity from which they came.

These children-unoffending, innocent, and beautiful-were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.

And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician [Audience:] (Yeah) who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats (Yeah) and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. (Speak) They have something to say to every Negro (Yeah) who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.

And so my friends, they did not die in vain. (Yeah) God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. (Oh yes) And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force (Yeah) that will bring new light to this dark city. (Yeah) The holy Scripture says, "A little child shall lead them." (Oh yeah) The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland (Yeah) from the low road of man's inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood. (Yeah, Yes) These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham (Yeah) to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. (Yeah)

And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here, that in spite of the darkness of this hour (Yeah Well), we must not despair. (Yeah, Well) We must not become bitter (Yeah, That's right), nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. (Yeah, Yes) Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.

May I now say a word to you, the members of the bereaved families? 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. But I hope you can find a little consolation from the universality of this experience. Death comes to every individual. There is an amazing democracy about death. It is not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy for all of the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men and poor men die; old people die and young people die. Death comes to the innocent and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreducible common denominator of all men.

I hope you can find some consolation from Christianity's affirmation that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into life eternal. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise, be your sustaining power during these trying days.

Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. (Yeah, Yes) Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah) And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him (Yeah, Well), and that God is able (Yeah, Yes) to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.

And so today, you do not walk alone. You gave to this world wonderful children. [moans] They didn't live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. (Well) Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality. (Yeah) And 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. (Yeah) They did not die

in the dives and dens of Birmingham (Yeah, Well), nor did they die discussing and listening to filthy jokes. (Yeah) They died between the sacred walls of the church of God (Yeah, Yes), and they were discussing the eternal meaning (Yes) of love. This stands out as a beautiful, beautiful thing for all generations. (Yes) Shakespeare had Horatio to say some beautiful words as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet. And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare: (Yeah, Well): Good night, sweet princesses. Good night, those who symbolize a new day. (Yeah, Yes) And may the flight of angels (That's right) take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you.

50 Year Anniversary of the Church Bombing!

Photo by Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images  

Robert Chambliss - Burton Mcneely/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

The Four Innocents- AP Photo/The Birmingham News

On Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, in Birmingham, Ala., at 10:22 a.m., a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Of the nearly 200 congregants inside, attending Sunday school classes and preparing for the 11 a.m. service, about 22 were injured. But perhaps most notably, four little innocent girls -- three 14-year-olds and one 11-year-old -- were killed, putting the bombing among the most well-known and most heartbreaking tragedies in the fight for civil rights in America's Deep South.  At what cost is hatred and bigotry?  Even now the question remains are black lives less valuable than others?  And from whose perspective?  50 years have passed and we still don't know the answers.

In 1963, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley died in a war they didn't fully understand, and died unnecessarily due to hatred.  Three of the four suspects responsible for the bombing were convicted. Two died in prison, Robert Chambliss, BobbyFrank Cherry and ThomasE. Blanton, Jr. is still in prison. In 1977, Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss was convicted of murder or the bombing and sentenced to life terms of imprisonment.  He died in 1985.

Not more than seven hours after the bombing, two more people died, a sixteen year old and a thirteen year old.  They were shot by the police.  Young lives who have just begun to live. William Faulkner had it right: in the south, he once wrote, "the past is never dead. It isn't even past."

RIP, Mr. William Davis!

William Davis, Jr., 88, 1401 S. McDuffie St., passed away on August 11, 2013, at AnMed Health. He was a U.S. Navy Veteran. He is survived by his children, Qualma Davis Green, Leon B. Davis, Quinton E. Davis, Allen S. Davis; a host of grandchildren; two sisters, Christine Bussey and Bernell Winfield; and one brother, Charles Davis. He was preceded in death by his wife, Bernelle Singleton Davis; parents, Willie and Annie Lou Watson Davis; one son, William E. Davis; and two sisters, Wilma Reed and Vivan Edwards.

The funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, August 17, 2013, at St. Mary's Catholic Church. 

September 11, 2013!

Do you remember where you were September 11, 2001?  Do you remember the tragedies?  Do you remember what you did and what was said?  Continue to pray for the victims' families and the unity of this great nation.

I'll Cover You! Not From the Original Movie!

This is a beautiful song from another version of Rent!  Not song in the bass version as the original actors, but still touching.  Angel's funeral is inside a church which seems more profound.  We seem to have a lot to say after they are gone.  It is almost like remembering what should have been said or just realizing what should have been said.  Losing a loved one still leaves an emptiness that can't be filled.  Grief can be so painful. We have to consider to serenity they have transitioned to. Love while you can, my brothers and sisters, but keep God first in the equation.

Another Unknown Hero!

Few people have about James Hampton. I stumble across the name and his works myself.  Whatever reason people are kept in obscurity, we may never know.  But there are so many people that has contributed to this world one way or another that their value may not be important to the masses.  Yet, all of us are valuable to someone!

James Hampton was born in 1909 in Elloree, South Carolina, a small community of predominantly African-American sharecroppers and tenant farmers.  He died in 1964 in Washington, DC.  His father was a gospel singer and self-ordained Baptist minister who left his wife and four children to pursue the call to spread the word.

In 1928, when he was nineteen, Hampton moved to Washington, D.C., to live with an older brother Lee. Drafted into the Army in 1942, he served with a segregated unit that maintained airstrips in Saipan and Guam during World War II. Hampton returned to Washington in 1945, and began working a year later as a janitor for the General Services Administration. James Hampton died of stomach cancer in 1964. Although he expressed interest in finding "a holy woman," to assist with his life’s work he never married and had few close friends.

Hampton was raised as a fundamentalist Baptist, but he disliked the concept of a denominational God and attended a variety of the city’s churches. As early as 1931, Hampton believed that he began receiving visions from God, and by 1945 it appears he had made one small, shrine-like object while stationed on Guam. This piece became part of his larger work, and is now placed in front of the center pulpit.  

His work on The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly probably began in earnest around 1950, when he rented a garage in his northwest Washington neighborhood, which was also the city's center of African-American business, religious, and night life.  He had emblazoned the words Fear Not above the central throne. The complete work consists of a total of 180 objects that were donated anonymously to the SmithsonianAmerican Art Museum in 1970. Many of them were inscribed with words from the Book of Revelation. The objects on the right side of the central throne appear to refer to the New Testament; those on the left side, to the Old Testament.

Although a humble man, Hampton often referred to himself as "St. James." He gave himself the title of "Director, Special Projects for the State of Eternity."  He may have considered himself a prophet like John, the author of The Book of Revelation, the biblical writing that inspired Hampton's belief in the Second Coming of Christ and his desire to build The Throne as a monument to the return of Christ to earth.

Hampton worked almost every day on his project, often starting his work at midnight after completing his janitorial duties. He continued his efforts until he died in 1964. The Throne was discovered and brought to the public's attention after his death by the owner of the garage he wanted to find out why the rent was not paid. It is most likely Hampton's monument to his faith might not be completely finished.  For 14 years, Hampton had been building a throne out of various old materials like aluminum and gold foil, old furniture, various pieces of cardboard, old light bulbs, shards of mirror and old desk blotters.  Amazingly, he had pinned it together with tacks, glue, pins and tape.

What I found interesting is his notebook titled St. James: The Book of the 7 Dispensation. Most of the text had been written in an unknown script that remains undeciphered. The text is available online and has been the subject of research.  Some of this text, however, had been accompanied by notes in English. In Hampton's writing, for example, he used the title "Director, Special Projects for the State of Eternity" and ended each page with the word "Revelation." Hampton had also written texts, some of which refer to religious visions, on various pieces of paper and cardboard and on a few pages in each of seven other notebooks.

RIP, Elder Cephas Jackson, Jr!