In Touch With the Summer of ‘63
Written By
Betty Miller Buttram
FWIS Contributing Writer
The summer of 1963 gave America three chapters that have impacted and added to the annals of its history. These actualities will not be erased from the minds and memories of the people who lived through those turbulent times. Two of the chapters were violent and the third was a peaceful movement. Let’s put them in the order of their occurrence.
Just after midnight on June 12, 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi, Medgar Evers was murdered by a shotgun blast to his back. Evers had been a civil rights leader and lived in Mount Bayou, a historical black town in the Mississippi Delta. The NAACP national office noticed Evers’ work and named him its first field secretary in Jackson, Mississippi. His family moved to Jackson where Evers carried out his duties in his new position. The racism that led to the fear and hatred of his endeavors to help his people caused the shotgun blast that ended his life.
The March on Washington, August 28, 1963, advocated for the civil and economic rights of African Americans and other disenfranchised groups. It was the largest gathering of the civil rights movement at the time. People came into Washington, D.C. by planes, trains, cars, and buses from all over the country. It was estimated that the crowd was over 250,000 people. There was no run on the U.S. Capitol. Instead, the people gathered around the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflection Pool to hear Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other speaking guests as they voiced their concerns about equal rights and equal justice. The people left Washington, D.C. that day as quietly as they had come in.
On September 15, 1963, a bombing occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Four little girls lost their lives. They were Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair; but there was a fifth little girl.
Sarah Collins Rudolph was the fifth little girl, the sole survivor of that bombing and the sister of Addie Mae Collins. Sarah was a few feet from the other four girls who were standing close together when the bomb exploded. Those little girls fell where they were, and Sarah was left standing. The glass and debris caused extensive body injuries to her.
On June 20, 2023, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., there was a preview event hosted by New Wave Wellness and the African/African American Historical Society Museum in the downtown ACPL Library Theatre. The audience at this preview event received some insight into the story of Sarah Collins Rudolph. She has told her story in the titled book, The 5th Little Girl, written by Tracy Snipe (in conversation with Sarah Collins Rudolph.) Three chapters of the book were read to the audience, there were discussion questions, and a video was shown. Sarah Collins Rudolph was there telling her story about that tragic September day and about the impact that those injuries had on her body and her mental health as she navigated through her life.
Rudolph will be the Keynote Speaker at South Side High School Auditorium, 3601 Calhoun Street, Fort Wayne, on Saturday, September 9, 2023, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. There will be a Meet and Greet, Book signing, and Light Refreshments. It is open to the public, and the doors open at 11:30 a.m.
It has been 60 years since the death of Medgar Evers; 60 years from the peaceful March on Washington, and 60 years of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. And yet, all is not at peace.
We must continue to stay alert to what is happening in todays fight for racial and social justice. We are standing on the shoulders of those who have lost so much in their fight for equality.