Although the church facility where I pastored in downtown Birmingham, Alabama for nine years is now owned by Alabama Power Company, I cannot forget the tragedy of the senseless bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church located a few blocks from our church facility on 7th Avenue and 18th Street.
O. N. Todd was our pastor in those days. Melvine and I were living in Brownville, Alabama, near Evergreen where I was pastor of the Brownville P. H. Church in September 1963, when this Black church was bombed. The blast was so strong that it shook our building and broke windows where some of our children were meeting for Sunday school. However, none of our children were injured, but our hearts went out to the families of the four young girls who lost their lives that horrible Sunday morning that shattered the quiet and peace of a loving community.
If any good came out of this bombing of innocent children, it was that it awakened the city of Birmingham and the nation to the horror of the event, and was indeed the turning point in race relations.
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is today a vibrant church that is thriving in the inner city of Birmingham. I am told the sanctuary is beautiful with its stained-glass window, a gift from the people of Wales. My grandfather, John Thomas Morgan was born in Wales. I never got to meet him. Someday, I hope to go to Wales to see that country where he lived.
Posted on
Fri, April 15, 2011
by Hugh Morgan