Willie Williams Jr. didn’t exactly know how he was going to get a print of his painting “4 The Little Girls” to Spike Lee at the 60th-year commemoration of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. But he knew he had to take a chance.

Williams heard the acclaimed director would be at the Friday morning memorial ceremony at the historic church. So he went prepared, with a small framed print of the painting depicting colorful images of Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Morris Wesley, Denise McNair, and Carole Robertson — the four girls killed when a bomb set by white supremacists detonated inside the church the morning of September 15, 1963.

As expected, Lee was at the church that morning. His presence was hardly a surprise, even for folks who hadn’t heard he would attend. Lee directed “4 Little Girls,” the Academy Award-nominated 1997 documentary about the events surrounding the bombings. He had previously traveled to Birmingham a decade ago to attend commemorative screenings of the film for the 50th anniversary of the bombing, where he also spoke about his own Alabama roots. His father was born in Snow Hill, a community in Wilcox County. In 1980, his aunt Conseula reopened the Snow Hill Institute, the performing arts school for children founded by her grandfather William J. Edward in 1893.

During commemoration week, the city hosted screenings of the documentary leading up to the 60th anniversary, one of which included a virtual introduction from Lee himself.

On Friday, Lee walked into the church with political dignitaries and family members of the bombing victims. As songs from the Miles College and Carlton Reese Memorial choirs filled the sanctuary during the memorial pre-ceremony, Lee laughed, hugged, and shook hands with attendees, many of whom remembered him from his times in Birmingham. Lee sat on a second-row pew with the McNair family, Dianne Robertson Braddock, Sarah Collins Rudolph and George Rudolph, Rep. Terri Sewell, and Birmingham’s Mayor Randall Woodfin. He listened and applauded during U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s keynote.

When Rev. Arthur Price asked the sanctuary to join the choir to sing “We Shall Overcome,” Lee joined hands with Robertson and Lisa McNair. And as the ceremony ended, Lee and the other attendees filed out of the sanctuary for the annual wreath laying at the stone memorial outside of the church.

After the service, as people gathered on the sidewalk for fellowship and photos, a small crowd of people gathered near the church to catch a glimpse of Lee, chat with him, and shake his hand. He waved and greeted people. The Morehouse College graduate told 12-year-old Isabella Jolly she should choose Spelman for college.

“I had to be here,” Lee told AL.com’s Roy Johnson and a gaggle of reporters that afternoon. “Not to disrespect anybody, but I’d have missed game six of the NBA Finals if the Knicks were in it to be here.”

Holding his framed print wrapped in plastic, Willie Williams made his way through the crowd of people.

“I didn’t know how it would get to him,” he told AL.com. “But I just kind of stepped out on faith. You know, if he was close enough to me. That was my opportunity.”

Williams got the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s attention with just enough time to take his work out of the plastic wrapping and formally present Lee with the piece. The director asked the crowd to quiet down so he could hear Williams speak as he held up the frame.

When Williams finished speaking, Lee thanked him for the gesture.

“[He] asked my name and if my contact info was on it so he could get in touch with me, to which of course I said yes,” said Williams.

The exchange happened fast. But if Williams could describe the experience in one word, he’d say “outstanding.” Like so many Black kids, Williams grew up watching Spike Lee joints. The first production he remembers seeing was “Crooklyn.” He’s 27— young, but still old enough to remember watching the movie on VHS. And of course, he saw Lee’s documentary “4 Little Girls.”

“Seeing what he’s given to the culture for so long and then me being able to contribute something I’ve given to the culture to him. It’s like an artist-to-artist exchange in that regard. So, I was really proud,” Williams said. “It was outstanding, and just a day I will never forget.”

For Williams, the journey to that moment dates back to 2013 when he was a student at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. That year marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing and events that killed Collins, McNair, Wesley, and Robertson, as well as Johnny Robinson, and Virgil Ware, who were killed in the violent aftermath that evening.

He’d been tapped to interpret the 1963 bombing with a unique work of art.

Guided by his love of Black history, Williams wanted to create a piece that gave the four girls humanity and a lively spirit.

He started the piece during the summer of 2013. By September, the work was complete. The result: A four-foot-by-five-foot red, white, and blue acrylic painting of the girls woven with images of the 1963 March on Washington, the American flag, and 16th Street Baptist Church.

Williams presented his piece around Birmingham, including to Odessa Woolfolk at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and to then-mayor William Bell. The painting would eventually move into its permanent residence on the third floor of City Hall, outside of the mayor’s office.

A lot has changed since 2013. Three years later, Williams and his family opened Studio 2500— their fine art gallery and studio in north Birmingham — for its first art show. In 2017, Williams graduated from Birmingham Southern University.

The studio and gallery, complete with a blooming sculpture garden, is a haven for exhibits, artist talks, performances, and conversations about social justice. In 2019, Chicago Sculpture International selected Williams’ “Trinity”— one of the carbon and steel pieces in his series about Black women in America— to display as part of its Sculpture in the Parks program.

Last summer at Studio 2500, Williams cut the ribbon on his sculpture project The Arc of Justice with remarks by Mayor Randall Woodfin and the company of Birmingham’s civil rights foot soldiers.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Willie is revisiting “4 The Little Girls.” On Dec. 15, he plans to release an art book about the making of the painting filled with images, poetry, and reflections.

Last Saturday, he hosted an artist talk and signed prints of the painting at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. In front of an audience of his family, church members, elders, foot soldiers, former professors, and fellow artists — including Wilhelmina Thomas — Williams opened the first part of his talk with a dedication to the girls, asking the audience to call each of their names.

“Today, we’re not just honoring them,” Williams said during the talk. “We must say their names first, because their names evoke their humanity and evoke their spirit in space right now.”

“All of those names that were called. Though they were young. Though they were full of life. Though they were on their way to the trajectory of their lives, they’re still human and we can still keep them alive,” he said. “Especially in the work I can do in honor of them.”

During the talk, Williams admitted he often felt emotional as he thought about Addie Mae, Cynthia, Denise, and Carole. While completing the book, Williams said, he wondered how he would have felt if he was their brother.

He recalled giving Sarah Collins Rudolph, the sister of Addie Mae Collins, a framed print of ‘4 The Little Girls’ in 2022. Often called “the fifth little girl,” 12-year-old Rudolph was in the bathroom with Addie Mae, Carole, Cynthia, and Denise when the bomb exploded in the church. The blast blew glass and shrapnel at her face, leaving her blind in one eye. Rudolph had glass fragments in her chest, left eye, and abdomen for decades after the explosion.

Williams actually didn’t know about Collins Rudolph until 2020. He read about her story as he was doing research. He later saw her profile on Facebook and immediately added her as a friend with the goal of reaching out to her.

He would finally meet her in person in 2022, when he invited her and her husband George out to City Hall to see “4 The Little Girls” on the third floor. Then he surprised her with a framed print of the painting. For Williams, it was an emotional moment.

“I’m visual,” he said “She probably looks like what Addie may have looked like. And so that’s what I immediately saw. Like the glasses, everything was like… wow. This is probably how her sister would’ve looked.”

“I took a minute to kind of digest that,” Williams said about the gravity of meeting Collins Rudolph.

For Williams, seeing Collins Rudolph on Friday after the memorial was another highlight of the afternoon. He waited behind dozens of people to greet her and take photos with her and George. Once he reached her side, he took a photograph of her and foot soldier Jacqueline Taylor. That afternoon, Sarah wore a bright red pencil dress and red heels with black satin trim. Her husband donned a maroon suit with his Vietnam veteran cap.

While the annual memorials are solemn services, the moments outside of the wreath laying tend to be jovial times, where people extend the families well wishes and program attendees exchange kisses, hugs, and handshakes.

Williams said seeing Sarah Collins Rudolph is always a joy. “I mean, she knows how to dress. She knows how to come out in style,” he said, smiling. “She doesn’t have to say anything. Her dress says it all.”

For decades, visual and performing artists have memorialized the events of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Dr. Tracy Snipe, the author of Sarah Collins Rudolph’s memoir, describes the bombing as one of the nation’s historic events that “crystalize the intersection of musical politics and popular culture,” inspiring Nina Simone’s “Four Women” and John Coltrane’s “Alabama.” Professional dancer and filmmaker Kerri Edge directed ”4 Little Girls,” an interpretation of Birmingham’s 1963 civil rights movement through film dance, music, and poetry.

Last week, photographer DaWoud Bey’s “The Birmingham Project” returned to the Birmingham Museum of Art for the 60th anniversary commemoration week, a decade after it made its debut.

RELATED: ‘4 Little Girls’: Filmmaker Kerri Edge explores Birmingham in 1963 through dance

Dawoud Bey’s ‘The Birmingham Project’ is returning to the Birmingham Museum of Art

Bey’s series of black-and-white portraits paired children who were the same age as Collins, Robertson, Wesley, McNair, Robinson, and Ware at the time of their deaths with adults who would be the same age had the victims been alive today. The exhibition opened with a conversation between Bey and scholar Dr. Imani Perry. The next day, Bey held an artist talk for Kids in Birmingham 1963, an organization devoted to preserving the oral histories of adults who came of age during Birmingham’s most pivotal year of the civil rights movement.

Williams missed the premiere of “The Birmingham Project” in 2013, but he made it a point to see the exhibition this year, especially as an artist who is reviewing his own work in the wake of the city’s 60-year commemoration.

“The concept is interesting. [The way] he brings the victims into now and kind of gives them a humanity of what they were from a contemporary lens,” Williams said. “That was pretty good.”

Bey was 11 years old when he first saw a photograph of Sarah Collins lying in a hospital bed with bandages covering both of her eyes. That image, said Bey “seared its way” into his psyche and he never forgot it.

Williams is honored Sarah Collins Rudolph owns a print of “4 The Little Girls.” He hopes she considers it a token of gratitude as she continues to share her story 60 years after the bombing that changed the course of her life.

“She is alive to tell it,” said Williams. “Thank God.”