Matthew 5: 43-44



Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.



On this September day in 1963, at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, the sermon "The Love That Forgives" was scheduled to be preached on the text from Matthew. Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, Cynthia Wesley, 14, and Addie Mae Collins, 14, four young black girls, were changing into their choir robes in the basement of the church when the bomb, set by segregationists apparently dead to conscience and saving faith, exploded, killing the four girls and injuring twenty others.



The bombing came only 18 days after the hope of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Rev. Martin Luther King's sermon that day: "I Have A Dream." Dr. King preached at the funeral for the murdered girls.