1963 Church Bombing Survivors to Speak Aug. 31
SHARON, Pa. -- Barbara Cross and Junie Collins Williams, two female survivors of the historical 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, will be guest speakers Aug. 31 at the Penn State Shenango campus. The event marks the 50th anniversary of the bombing.
It was 10:22 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1963, when a homemade bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls and injuring several others. Many of the civil rights protest marches that took place in Birmingham during the 1960s began at the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which had long been a significant religious center for the city's black population and a routine meeting place for civil rights organizers including Martin Luther King.
Cross, who was 13 at the time, lost four of her friends that day. As her father, Pastor John Cross Jr., dug through rubble from the collapsed basement, the bodies of 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, were found dead. Williams was not only good friends of the girls who had died, but she was the sister of Collins. After years of silence and healing, Williams began telling her story to a new generation, appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “The View,” in People Magazine and on colleges and universities across the country.
Cross and Williams will also will speak at 5 p.m. Sept. 1, at the Hour of Power Full Gospel Tabernacle in Farrell, Pa.
The Penn State event, held at 5 p.m. at the Penn State Shenango Auditorium, is sponsored by the Inter-Denominational Clergy Women’s Alliance Inc. of the Shenango Valley Chapter and Penn State Shenango. A meet and greet and light reception will follow the event in the Great Hall. For more information on both of these events, contact Rev. Jennifer L. Campbell, public relations representative at (724) 685-6406 or Liz Izenas, coordinator for Community Relations, Penn State Shenango, at (724) 983-2906.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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