‘Four little girls’ of Birmingham remembered 50 years later — MSNBC

‘Four little girls’ of Birmingham remembered 50 years later — MSNBC: It’s been nearly 50 years since four young girls were killed after members of the Ku Klux Klan planted a bomb at their Sunday school in Birmingham, Ala., simply because of the color of their skin. But five decades later, lawmakers have moved one step closer to posthumously awarding the “four little girls,” as they are known by some, with the Congressional Gold Medal, proving that their memory remains seared into our national consciousness.

“These children, unoffending, innocent, and beautiful were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity,” said the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a eulogy for the four children–Addie Mae Collins, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14. “They died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.”

The girls were killed the morning of Sept. 15, 1963, in a bombing that also injured 22 other churchgoers. It wasn’t until 2000 that the FBI announced the attack had been carried out by the Ku Klux Klan and arrested the remaining suspects, who were later convicted.