To the Martyrs of 15 September 1963, Birmingham, Alabama: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, & Cynthia Wesley

With gratitude to their remembrance in song “Birmingham Sunday” by Richard Fariña

Clockwise from top left: Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), & Denise McNair (11).

On 15 September 1963, eighteen days after the March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, a terrorist attack by the Ku Klux Klan struck the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. A bomb explosion left up to 22 injured and four girls’ lives stolen.

The outrage was channeled into a moving and gentle song, “Birmingham Sunday,” written by singer, songwriter, and poet Richard Fariña (1937-1966), to the tune of “Once Loved a Lass,” a traditional Scots ballad. Both he and his sister-in-law each recorded the song.