Don't tell me you can't... Just Keep It Movin'

Today marks the 49th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th avenue Baptist Church.  Here's why that's important...

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shutterworth. Tensions became high when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) became involved in a campaign to register African American to vote in Birmingham.

On Sunday, 15th September, 1963, a white man was seen getting out of a white and turquoise Chevrolet car and placing a box under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Soon afterwards, at 10.22 a.m., the bomb exploded killing Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14). The four girls had been attending Sunday school classes at the church. Twenty-three other people were also hurt by the blast.

A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as the man who placed the bomb under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On 8th October, 1963, Chambliss was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for having the dynamite.

The case was unsolved until Bill Baxley was elected attorney general of Alabama. He requested the original Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the case and discovered that the organization had accumulated a great deal of evidence against Chambliss that had not been used in the original trial.

In November, 1977 Chambliss was tried once again for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Now aged 73, Chambliss was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Chambliss died in an Alabama prison on 29th October, 1985. 

On 17th May, 2000, the FBI announced that the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing had been carried out by the Ku Klux Klan splinter group, the Cahaba Boys. It was claimed that four men, Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry had been responsible for the crime. Cash was dead but Blanton and Cherry were arrested and Blanton has since been tried and convicted. Cherry was deemed unfit to stand trial.

Human Rights, Basic Dignity and Justice have not been easy roads.  But we put on our armour and we walk them anyway.  The obstacles become different and so we must remove them differently, BUT WE KEEP IT MOVIN'.  So as legal challenges are being mounted in the courts, we need to make sure that Senior Centers are being attended to so that our seniors can get their pass books (oops sorry, I mean voter ID).  We need to canvas our friends and neighbors to ensure they are registered and have the identification they need.  We need to talk to our young adults before they get to involved in their studies to make sure they have either registered to vote by mail; will be coming home to vote or have the proper identification to vote where they are.  And by the way, if you live in one of the 26 states that now require pass books (Darn, I mean voter IDs) you need to figure out what you need!  

The bottom line:  KEEP THIS TRAIN MOVIN' It's not only a responsibility, it's an obligation.

Again... Yes Again, and Again and Again!!

I'm having a hard time moving away from the story '68 Olympics this year.  It continues to resonate in my heart and travels deeply into my soul.  Maybe it's the recent publication of The John Carlos Story, his book written with Dave Zirin.  The great respect I have for all of these men.

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Maybe it's because it was also my time in history.  I was a sophomore in college at the time.









Maybe it's because it allows me some kind of molecular connection that I can maintain to G. Larry James, "the mighty burner" himself a '68 Olympian.  A man so dear, a  friend with a heart of pure gold, whose song was song all to softly, and who left us all too soon.








I remember the 40th Anniversary, the return to Mexico.

The celebrations, the honors, the "redemption".



But today I relearned a very important lesson.  We cannot be one story people. It destroys the human experience. It denies our growth. It makes us less than complete. The rest of that lesson: we are not the author's of the stories of others.  Our job is to listen, with an open and willing heart. To hear the truth from another perspective, to honor it as another's truth and allow it to come into our hearts. And it is an honor to hear the story from the author of the life. It is a responsibility to "pass it on" with the honesty and integrity with which it is told.

My last "again"... on the '68 Olympics is that there were 3 men who stood on that podium that day.  One who is too often forgotten, but one whose image though muted is as strong as any other.  There were three men.  John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Peter Norman;

John  Carlos and Tommie Smith Return to Mexico City

"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined to strengthen each other... to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories."              George Elliot

There were many photos taken during the 1960's that could define that period of time. This one stands among them. So what was it that these two very young men were thinking at that moment in time? How and why did they decide to make this statement, and what was it they were really saying. The 1968 Olympics truly mirrored the politics of a period. Today at 4pm ESPN will broadcast a special of John Carlos and Timmie Smith's return to Mexico City. And documents these two friends as they reflect on the 1968 Olympics, and a moment in time.

40th Anniversary

This is a post from my Facebook account this morning. It took me awhile to get it posted because I'm not really adept with the nuances of posting. It was an exceptional piece. It is my hope that ESPN will produce a DVD for purchase, they should at least rerun it--and not just during the "short month" (otherwise known as Black History Month).  I think we should start making some requests.   I hope you all had the opportunity to see it. There are some clips posted on ESPN. There are 4 of them. Check them out:


Note: some of the ESPN links are no longer viewable. You can view them on YOUTUBE. 




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