On Anniversaries, Trauma, and Where We Are

TW: anti-Blackness, domestic terrorism, hate crime.

Today is the 59th anniversary of the anti-Black hate crime that was the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. "Anniversary" is probably the wrong word, especially when your experience in the United States and western culture is perforated with monumental events of mourning and loss, but it is an anniversary nonetheless.

On the morning of September 15, 1963, four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The dynamite-fueled explosion injured 22 people and murdered four young Black girls.

The girls were all under the age of 14.

Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair should still be here today, spending time with their families, possible children, and grandchildren. They should be in their late 60s and early 70s, with many more years of joy and happiness ahead of them. They committed no crime, no sin. They were just at church with their families on a Sunday morning.

Yet here we are.

The senseless, hateful murders of these four young Black girls were part of the catalyst that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Their blood permeates the ink and paper used to draft and sign the Civil Rights Act into law. Their families' pain and trauma should resonate with the politicians tasked with upholding federal hate crime laws. Many state and federal officials currently serving communities across the United States spent their formative years in the 50s and 60s and have seen the effects of anti-Blackness and white supremacy on multiple levels.

Yet here we are, with politicians decrying critical race theory and passing laws to ensure no one talks about legitimate U.S. history in our schools.

Fifty-nine years ain't that long ago, y'all. Fifty-nine years is more than enough time for white people who were also under 14 years of age in 1963 to have evolved into better people than their parents.

Yet here we are.