Congress Recognizes Ala. Church Bombing

WASHINGTON -- More than four decades after a racially charged church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., Congress on Wednesday officially recognized for the first time the tragedy that helped create momentum for the civil rights movement.

The resolution, sponsored in the House by Alabama Democrat Artur Davis, honored not only the four girls killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing but also the recent effort by law enforcement to bring the killers to justice.

The House passed the measure by voice vote, and the Senate was poised to follow with its own resolution sponsored by Republicans Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

"The irony is the people who bombed that church thought they would frustrate the civil rights movement," Davis said. "The reality is their acts of violence encouraged people, inspired people."

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-congress-church-bombing,0,2926651.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

IT's in Dan Carter's book. Crowds of angry white men in pickup trucks drove around into the downtown area celebrating the bombing and waving that symbol of "heritage", the Confederate flag.