By: Rene Childress

In this story we will examine one of the most awful and dastardly accounts of racial depravity recorded in a string of horrendous actions occurring in Alabama during the movement to secure civil rights for African-Americans.

We find ourselves on a late fall Sunday morning . It is September 15, 1963. It is a warm sunny day by all accounts. We see four little black girls named Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair and Carol Robertson preparing to go to Sunday School. 

They are getting their hair done. They have wiped off their shoes. They have picked out their garments for the day. 

These were the days that little girls wore frilly little gloves and patent leather shoes. Sunday school was not just a worship service for young people, it was a social gathering place for young people in the Lord to meet and enjoy each other's company. 

Neither they nor their families  would think that this would be their last day on this earth. Their tortuous deaths that day would be the cymbal sounding around the world that things have to change.  Of course I am referring to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. 

That day was like any other Sunday. There were two hundred expected attendees for Sunday service. The children always go a little early to attend Sunday School. These children going to learn about the Lord were literally torn to shreds by a bomb placed in the basement. Four were killed and twenty-two were wounded. 

This is where the current story begins There are two other murders that day that were committed by avowed white racists. This is the story of two forgotten young African-American boys who were dismissively shot and killed as if they were targets on a shooting range. 

Their names are Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson. These two young boys lost their lives during the aftermath of the 16th Street Church bombing. We will first look at the murder of Johnny Robinson. 

He was with a group of his friends when they were confronted by a carload of white people displaying confederate flags, yelling racial insults and throwing debris at them. The teens obviously took offense and began throwing the trash back at them.  What occurs next is horrendous. 

A police cruiser appears and the children decide to run away. An officer who is in the backseat of the car sticks his shotgun out the window and fires at the kids. He strikes and kills Johnny Robinson in the back. 

The officer who shoots Johnny in the back is a 48 year old man named Jack Parker. He is a well known outspoken white supremacist. He is never charged with the shooting of a young teen for throwing some debris back at the whites who threw it  at him. 

Johnny Robinson was taken forever from his family”s bosom. Jack Parker continued to live into old age unmolested or unrepentant  for his actions this fateful day.

The other young person that was stolen from his family was 13 year old Virgil Ware. He started out the day leaving home riding on the handlebar of his brother’s  bicycle. They were on their way to the junkyard looking for parts to fix his bike. 

They are unaware of the bombing that had taken place. They crossed paths with some white teenagers who had spent the morning at the headquarters of the “National States Rights Party” . These two white teens decided to meander through the neighborhood together. 

These young white supremacists named Larry Joe Sims and Michael Lee Farley are on the hunt for some “Niggers”. They come across Virgil and his brother. Sims shot Virgil in the face. 

He later claimed he was firing into the ground to scare them.  Sims was eventually charged with first degree  murder. He was ultimately convicted of second degree manslaughter. 

Farley confessed to second degree manslaughter. The judge sentenced them to two seven months in prison. The sentences were later changed to two years probation. Again another African-American family was victimized by white justice.

These two youngsters were just collateral damage among the carnage of this horrible day. Two more on a long list of losses. Let us remember them. This was the worst day for all the African-American families of Birmingham. 

They knew that they can’t protect their children  from their fellow white citizens.They live with gun happy police officers. They live with terrorists with nicknames like “Dynamite Bob '' (Robert Chambliss)the progenitor of at least 21 bombings including the 16thStreet Baptist Church. The community of Birmingham has for several years received the distinction of being nicknamed Bombingham. 

This is another terrible story. Another reason we can’t simply move on!