Suffer the Little Children (September 15, 2013)

On this date

In nineteen- sixty- three

Four little black girls,

Addie Mae

Cynthia Dianne

Carol Denise

Carole Rosamond

Were killed

On a Sabbath morning

In September

At the 16^th Street Baptist Church

In Birmingham

While they sat in their pews

Do you remember?

They were

Lovable

Sweet

Beautiful and smart

Mothers wept and moaned

Fathers seethed with rage

Pain and sorrow

Rained down like the concrete blocks

Shattering hopes

Destroying promise

Toppling dreams

May come

With the screams

Their little bodies

Buried in soot and ash

Burned and scorched

Charred and scarred

To death

Entombed under the rubble

Of hate

Mob rule

Out-lawlessness

Mean-spirited bull dogs

Deranged gangs

And an ugly prejudice

Under covers of

Un-christened pretense

Disguised in whiteface

Protecting white in-humanity

Kept in place

By one’s race

Four little black girls

Were killed

In a church which

Etched in the wood panel

“Do this in Remembrance of Me.”

Come to the supper table of the Lord

And remember His love

But four little girls

Were crucified

And died

On the cross

Of the freedom fight

For equal justice

And equal rights

They were killed

50 years ago

In September

Let us

Remember them

Proverbs 15:3

“The eyes of the Lord are in every place,

Keeping watch

Upon the evil and the good.”

Special note:  I checked and found no black broadcast 

channel giving any coverage to acknowledge 

and honor this critical date passing into our history.

Thanks to HBO for airing Spike Lee’s meaningful 

documentary, “Four Little Girls”

Thanks also to MSBNC  and C-Span the discussions 

and recognition of this terrible event