BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WBRC ) - The morning of September 15, 1963, Sarah Collins-Rudolph was with her sister, Addie Collins, in the basement of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church.

The sisters were freshening up after Sunday school classes, preparing for the church’s youth day program.

“That’s when Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, they came and sat,” remembers Collins-Rudolph.

In an instant, what should have been a day of worship for the five girls in that basement became a day of tragedy for their community and the United States.

At 10:22 a.m., a dynamite bomb planted in the basement of the church by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded.

Collins-Rudolph recalls her sister’s last act: Helping a friend.

“Denise asked Addie to tie the sash on her dress,” says Colli

See Full Page