Venue

Zoom

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Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing and Supporting Sarah Collins Rudolph

On September 15, 1963, four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite inside the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama and at about 10:20am, it was detonated.   When that dynamite exploded into the history of our nation, it destroyed the lives of four girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley who were attending Sunday School services.  Unknown to many is the fact that there was a 5^th little girl, 12-year-old Sarah Collins, who survived the bombing and whose life has been shaped by that trauma ever since.

On September 15, 2023, Join the Movement toward Racial Justice is partnering with Nurturing Justice to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the bombing and to support survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph.  Through an online symposium, we will seek healing from the horror of past harms, while keeping the power of the story of survival alive in our communities.  Through education, skill-building and reparatory justice, this symposium promises to not only honor the past but to equip us to build a future free from racial terror, one where people of African descent cannot only survive, but thrive.

The ongoing rise of white nationalist terror in our contemporary context, the prevalence of trauma for Black and Brown people in America, and the political and systemic roll back of voting, educational, reproductive and other basic human rights and freedoms, require our persistent attention.  Let us join together on this historic day to see what history has to teach us about repairing our present and creating a more just future.

Contribute to the community restorative justice campaign to support Sarah Collins Rudolph by donating here.

Symposium Format

Morning Session

• Opening Worship
• Interview with Sarah Rudolph Collins
• Plenary Keynote: Racial Terror, Trauma and Survival – Then and Now

Register here for the Morning Session:
https://UCC.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Nn4Ltq2PQnWlpdd-u2pm0w 

Afternoon Session

• Workshops
  • Combatting Christian Nationalism
  • Healing Intergenerational Trauma
  • Community Organizing against Racial Terror

Register here for the Afternoon Session:
https://UCC.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vdu6oqD4vHNYx9RninS_ncA2q0XBHci-A

Symposium Speakers and Leaders

• Rev. Dr. Willie Dwayne Francois III
• Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
• Rev. Dr. Velda Love
• Sarah Collins Rudolph
• Dr. Obery Hendricks, Jr.
• Rev. Dr. Danielle Buhuro
• Bishop Dwayne Royster