Sunday, September 15, 2024 is the 61st anniversary of the racist bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four young girls. Three of them were fourteen years old – just my age. They’d be 75 now if they’d been allowed to live.
You’d think we’d be better than this by now, but it sure looks like we’re not. Schools in Springfield, Ohio have been evacuated because of threats of racist bombings spurred on by blood libel against immigrants. I’ve got nothing else to say about this, except that I hope that the shock of this horror spurs the same kind of outcry that made Birmingham Sunday the start of a new era of resistance to racist bigotry.
Here are a couple links to Richard Fariña’s song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpFbAMhxc7A – sung by Richard Fariña
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_T5KlTpvoM – sung by Rhiannon Giddens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQIHSE7PZ6w – sung by Joan Baez