Birmingham Sunday September 15, 1963

The four girls killed in the bombing (Clockwise from top left,
Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley,
Carole Robertson and Denise McNair)

In Birmingham, Alabama, a senseless, racially motivated  attack occured on September 15, 1963. Members of the Ku Klux Klan dynamited the basement of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church during Sunday School and 4 little girls lost their lives, Addie Mae Collins (age 14), Denise McNair (age 11), Carole Robertson (age 14), and Cynthia Wesley (age 14) died and 22 other people were injured on that fateful Sunday.


While it's important to remember these terroristic acts of bigotry and cowardice it is even more important to remember that the children of Birmingham were not simply victims. The children of Birmingham, in the face of grave personal peril, courageously played a vital role in the acquisition of their civil rights. They left a legacy, which must be acknowledged and continued in order for their acts to not have been done in vain.
Web Prospector


Birmingham’s Child Heroes      
By Steve Theunissen
(excerpt)
"And so it was that on May 2nd, more than one thousand Black students skipped school and congregated at the 16th Street Baptist church ready to march downtown. Police Chief Eugene “Bull” Connor marshaled his forces against them. Coming out of the church in waves of 50, the students were arrested and carted off in police vans. Soon, however, there were no vans left and the police had to recruit school busses. Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent goal of filling the jails was being realized.
The next day hundreds more children turned up at 16th Street Baptist, ready and willing to be carted off to jail."

see the complete article at 
http://blog.richmond.edu/heroes/2012/09/08/birminghams-child-heroes/

African Image

Masque blanc, population Punu, Gabon. Bois, pigments dont kaolin. Musée du quai Branly.
Author Ji-Elle

You don't have to be an art critic to know beauty when you see it. It's time for Africans the world over to truly appreciate that which we sprang from. African Art and Architecture is as beautiful and creative as any in the world. When we acquaint ourselves and our children with this legacy we will open the gateway to a past which we have been longing for.

Harry Belafonte to Receive 2012 Humanitarian Award at Montreal International Black Film Festival

Montreal, September 6, 2012 – The legendary HARRY BELAFONTE will receive the Montreal International Black Film Festival's 2012 HUMANITARIAN PRIZE on opening night, Wednesday, September 19, 2012, at Cinéma Impérial, at 7 p.m. The MIBFF is granting Belafonte this award for his amazing contributions to the Civil Rights Movements as well as for his incredible selfless and dedicated efforts in addressing injustice and inequality in whatever form they took, even at the risk of his own wellbeing. In other words, for making the world a much better place.
"It is a tremendous honour and a real privilege for all of us to welcome the living legend, Harry Belafonte, to Montreal and to honour him with the very first Montreal International Black Film Festival's 2012 Humanitarian Prize. Giving him this award is also an excellent way for us to recognize the true value of his spirit that goes far beyond the Award-winning singer and movie star everyone knows. His constant fight for human rights have allowed people from all over the world to believe, hope, break down barriers and achieve great things," said Fabienne Colas, president and founder of the MIBFF.
The tribute to Harry Belafonte on September 19 will be followed by the screening of the opening film, Darrell Roodt's WINNIE, presented by Global Montreal, co-produced by Equinoxe Films and starring Oscar- and Grammy-award-winning Jennifer Hudson and Oscar-nominated Terrence Howard.