Birmingham Sunday by Joan Baez (1963)

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Joan Baez

Birmingham Sunday was released on January 1, 1964 telling the African American Baptist Church in Alabama, Birmingham by Ku Klux Klan. The song is written by Richard Fariña and performed by both Fariña and his sister-in-law Joan Baez.

The track was on the lists of her 5th album Joan Baez/5 released in 1964. The song was used as a theme song of the Spike Lee documentary about bombing, 4 Little GIrls in 1997. [1]

Bombing victims. From left: Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Dianne Wesley, 14

Background

Birmingham Sunday reflected the bombing in 1963 on the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. [2]

Previously, the church had been the host of movements and rallies in support of civil rights in Birmingham. This causes a focal point for white hostility in the city’s racial conflict. [3]

Members of the Ku Klux Klan known as KKK, planted dynamite in the predominantly African-American church. The incident happened on Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, causing twenty-two parishioners injured and four girls killed; Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Another attacks that claimed victims are two black teenagers, Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson, were also shot down by police and white vigilantes in the brutal incident. The bombing was the latest incident at the city, which is known as “Bombingham.” [4]

Black Empowerment

In a documentary film titled 4 Little Girls (1997) by Spike Lee, the former Alabama Attorney General William Baxley, reopened an investigation about the bombing in the early 1970s, resulting in one of the men in the bombing found guilty in 1977. Baxley had been interested for a long time in pursuing justice even before he was attorney general. He explained who he used to listen to in Birmingham Sunday by Joan Baez every day. The song helped inspire Baxley through the years to bring justice from the bombing tragedy. [5]

In another case, how Birmingham Sunday inspires everyone to fight for justice, in an open letter from a Caucasian Quaker woman who has been involved in the movement in her 49 years. She listened to the song at first when she was 13, she admitted that she had a mystical experience. She was moved and touched, she knew that she would continue to be involved in the Movement To Make Democracy Real for the rest of her life. By singing Birmingham Sunday gave her encouragement to pass tough days. The song has also encouraged many African-Americans and European Americans to get involved in the movement. [6]

Check the lines of the lyrics in Birmingham Sunday which reflects the church bombing killed four girls mentioned in the song [7] :

That cold autumn morning no eyes saw the sun

And Addie Mae Collins, her number was one

At an old Baptist church there was no need to run

And the choirs kept singing of freedom

The clouds they were grey and the autumn wind blew

And Denise McNair brought the number to two

And the choirs kept singing of freedom

The church it was crowded, but no one could see

That Cynthia Wesley's dark number was three

Her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me

And the choirs kept singing of freedom

Young Carol Robertson entered the door

And the number her killers had given was four

She asked for a blessing but asked for no more

And the choirs kept singing of freedom [8]

References