Rochester, NY - In 1963, in Birmingham, AL, four girls were killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church after several KKK members planted 19 sticks of dynamite outside of the church's basement. One 12-year-old girl survived, and her name is Sarah Collins Rudolph.
Sarah spent two months in the hospital and was left blind in one eye. It took some time for her to be able to talk about the day she became the “fifth little girl;” but now six decades later, she shares her story and the story of the four girls killed, including her sister, across the country.
“We should always remember that the death of those young girls,” said Collins Rudolph. “They really changed the world.”
In the two years following the bombing, Civil Rights and Voting acts were passed.
On February 5, Collins Rudolph shared her message in Rochester for the first time at In Christ New Hope Ministry church as part of the YMCA of Greater Rochester’s celebration of Black History Month, organized by Joe Carter and his team at The Lewis Street YMCA Neighborhood Center.
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