Elijah Lewis: “Mr. Speaker, 41 years ago last month, domestic terrorists bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham…”

“Mr. Speaker, 41 years ago last month, domestic terrorists bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, claiming four innocent lives and changing the course of American history. On that Sunday morning, four beautiful young girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley went to church and never came home. Four young lives, so full of promise, cut short by hatred. Church is usually a safe haven, but it was anything but safe when segregationists who opposed the integration of Birmingham schools, lunch counters, and restaurants targeted the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sunday, September 15, 1963. As long as I can remember, I will never ever forget that Sunday. It was one of the most painful and one of the darkest hours of the Civil Rights movement. Within 3 hours of the bombing, I made my way to Birmingham. I stood in front of the church and witnessed the devastation, the pain and the hurt. I kept asking myself: What is it, what is it in human beings, what is it in our makeup that would make us so mean, so hateful, and so vicious toward our fellow human beings?”