An evening of art and conversation will honor Sarah Collins Rudolph, Lisa McNair

An evening of art and conversation will honor Sarah Collins Rudolph, Lisa McNair

Urban Impact will host an event this evening to honor the upcoming 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

On Wednesday, August  23, the economic development nonprofit will partner with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI)  to host an evening of reflections and art exhibitions to honor Sarah Collins Rudolph and Lisa McNair. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. inside of the BCRI.

Carla Youngblood, the Operations Director for Urban Impact, says a question and answer session with Rudolph and McNair will kick off the event. After the conversation, a group of artists will reveal pieces dedicated to both women. Rudolph and McNair will also sign copies of their books.

Rudolph was 12 years old when dynamite planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan inside of the 16th Street Baptist Church exploded on Sept. 15, 1963. The blast blew glass and shrapnel at her face, leaving her blind in one eye, and killed her sister Addie Mae Collins and their friends Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair.

Rudolph had glass fragments in her chest, left eye and abdomen for decades after the explosion. Often called “the fifth little girl,” Rudolph rarely spoke in detail about her injuries from the bombing. That changed in the late eighties when she attended a church service at The Lighthouse in Ensley. Rudolph decided to get saved, and the pastor of the church prayed over her.

“And then when I got up off that floor, I joined the choir. I joined the usher board. I got up and started testifying. I started doing things that I never did think I could do in a church. I went up there and I sang that song, and I knew then that God had healed me,” Rudolph told AL.com in a 2018 interview. 

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After that night at the church, Rudolph began traveling to tell her story of survival. Her memoir, “The 5th Little Girl: Soul Survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (The Sarah Collins Rudolph Story),” was published in 2020. 

Lisa McNair was born one year and five days after the bombing killed her sister Denise. She only knew her sister through photographs and family stories, but she often imagined what she’d say to her sister. She started to write Denise letters. Decades later, those letters were compiled into a book. “Dear Denise” was published last year.

Wednesday’s evening of commemoration is one of three art and culture events leading up to Urban Impact’s Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival, which returns on Aug. 26 to  4th Avenue North between 18th and 16th Street. To celebrate the festival’s 20th anniversary, Urban Impact planned three performances and lectures around Birmingham, including an opening week concert at Uptown Birmingham and a Friday evening showcase at Jazzi’s on 3rd.  

Urban Impact designed Wednesday’s lecture to align with the city’s year-long commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the 1963 civil rights movement.