Title
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, honoring the lives of those lost, and recognizing the Reverend Arthur Price Jr., Philadelphia native and pastor at 16th Street Baptist, for his continued work on behalf of the community.
Body
WHEREAS, The 16th Street Baptist Church, first organized as the First Colored Baptist Church in 1873, was the first black church established in Birmingham just two years after the city was founded; and
WHEREAS, The present building was designed by prominent black architect Wallace Rayfield, and was constructed in 1911 by the local black contractor T.C. Windham. In addition to the main sanctuary, the building houses a basement auditorium, used for meetings and lectures, and several ancillary rooms used for Sunday school and smaller groups; and
WHEREAS, As one of the primary institutions in the black community, the 16th Street Baptist Church has hosted prominent speakers and visitors throughout its history, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson and Ralph Bunche; and
WHEREAS, During the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, the 16th Street Baptist Church served as an organizational headquarters, site of mass meetings and rallying point for African Americans protesting widespread institutionalized racism in Birmingham, Alabama, and the South. The church was used as a meeting place for leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) such as Fred Shuttlesworth, James Bevel, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; and
WHEREAS, Leading up to the 1960s Birmingham had earned a reputation as a tense, violent and racially segregated city. Bombings at black homes and institutions were a regular occurrence, with at least 21 separate explosions recorded at black properties and churches in the eight years before 1963, however none of these explosions had resulted in fatalities. These attacks earned the city the nickname "Bombingham"; and
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