PRINTER'S NO. 2883
No. 474 Session of 2003
INTRODUCED BY WASHINGTON, SCAVELLO, D. EVANS, GEIST, MYERS,
ARMSTRONG, BEBKO-JONES, BELARDI, BELFANTI, BISHOP, CAPPELLI,
CLYMER, COLEMAN, CORRIGAN, CRUZ, CURRY, DALEY, DENLINGER,
DONATUCCI, FABRIZIO, FAIRCHILD, FRANKEL, FREEMAN, GABIG,
GEORGE, GOODMAN, GRUCELA, HASAY, HERSHEY, HORSEY, JAMES,
JOSEPHS, KELLER, KIRKLAND, LEACH, LEDERER, LEH, LESCOVITZ,
LEVDANSKY, LEWIS, MANN, McGILL, O'NEILL, PALLONE, PHILLIPS,
PISTELLA, READSHAW, REICHLEY, ROBERTS, ROEBUCK, ROSS, RUBLEY,
SCHRODER, TANGRETTI, THOMAS, TIGUE, TRUE, TURZAI, WALKO,
WATERS, WATSON, WHEATLEY, WILLIAMS, WOJNAROSKI AND
YOUNGBLOOD, NOVEMBER 10, 2003
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
NOVEMBER 10, 2003
A RESOLUTION
1 Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the racially motivated
2 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,
3 Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963.
4 WHEREAS, Segregationists planted a dynamite bomb in the
5 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church basement to protest forced
6 integration of public schools in Birmingham, killing four young
7 girls readying for their first adult service, injuring others
8 and inciting further rioting and violence in the city; and
9 WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in eulogizing the young
10 victims, honored their noble death: "They are the martyred
11 heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity"; and
12 WHEREAS, Dr. King asserted certain meaning in their death:
13 "They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must
1 substitute courage for caution"; and
2 WHEREAS, Dr. King sought redemption: "The death of these
3 little children may lead our whole Southland from the low road
4 of man's inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and
5 brotherhood"; and
6 WHEREAS, In a speech on January 15, 1997, at the Sixteenth
7 Street Baptist Church on the anniversary of Dr. King's birth,
8 United States Attorney General Janet Reno invoked the continuing
9 challenge of reminding ourselves of common interests, common
10 ground and common dreams; and
11 WHEREAS, To honor the memory of bombing victims Addie Mae
12 Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair and
13 recommit to enduring goals of faith and tolerance, members of
14 the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church held a memorial service and
15 a revival service during their recent commemoration of the
16 church bombing; therefore be it
17 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
18 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania commemorate the 40th anniversary of
19 the September 15, 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist
20 Church in Birmingham, Alabama; and be it further
21 RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
22 the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.
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