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60th Anniversary of Birmingham Church Bombing Unites Families of Victims and Perpetrators

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Despite being born on opposite sides of one of the most heinous events of the civil rights movement, McNair and Fields shared a common goal: to speak out against hate. As the nation reflects on the 60th anniversary of this tragic event, McNair implored people to remember what transpired and contemplate how to prevent such hatred from rearing its head again.
The post 60th Anniversary of Birmingham Church Bombing Unites Families of Victims and Perpetrators first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 years ago

September 15, 2023

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

@StacyBrownMedia

Four innocent young girls getting ready for Sunday services died when the Ku Klux Klan detonated a devastating bomb inside Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church sixty years ago. Today, as the nation commemorates the somber 60th anniversary of that fateful September 15, 1963, day, two remarkable women, Lisa McNair, and Tammie Fields, stand united not only by their shared tragedy but also by their unwavering message to combat hate. McNair’s sister, Denise, was one of the four girls who tragically died in the bombing. In contrast, Fields’ father, Charles Cagle, was initially questioned as a potential suspect in the horrific church bombing but was never charged. Decades after this devastating event, the two women crossed paths at a Black History Month event, forging a seemingly improbable connection and an enduring friendship.

Despite being born on opposite sides of one of the most heinous events of the civil rights movement, McNair and Fields shared a common goal: to speak out against hate. As the nation reflects on the 60th anniversary of this tragic event, McNair implored people to remember what transpired and contemplate how to prevent such hatred from rearing its head again. “People killed my sister just because of the color of her skin,” McNair passionately declared in an interview with the Associated Press. “Don’t look at this anniversary as just another day. Instead, consider what each of us can do individually to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

The explosion occurred when dynamite, surreptitiously placed outside the 16th Street Baptist Church underneath a set of stairs, exploded. The four girls, ages 11 to 14, were assembled in a downstairs washroom before Sunday services when the devastating blast occurred. Tragically, 11-year-old Denise McNair and her friends, 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins, all perished in the explosion. A fifth girl, Sarah Collins Rudolph, Addie Mae’s sister, was also in the room and sustained severe injuries, including losing an eye.

The vile act of violence took place during the zenith of the civil rights movement, just eight months after then-Gov. George Wallace defiantly proclaimed, “segregation forever.” It occurred a mere two weeks following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. Three Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted in connection with the bombing: Robert Chambliss in 1977, Thomas Blanton in 2001, and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002.

Tammie Fields, now 64, was a toddler during the bombing. She vividly remembers her father, who died several years ago, harboring deep-seated hatred and bitterness toward Black individuals. Racial slurs were commonplace, and she was encouraged to despise her Black classmates. Fields credited her preacher grandfather with showing her a different path in life. “The most important thing to me is that my children will never know the hate that I’ve known,” Fields shared.

Lisa McNair, 58, was born a year after her sister’s tragic death, and she grew up witnessing the profound sorrow that haunted her parents. Her mother often took her and her siblings to the cemetery, where she would grieve or sit solemnly. In her book, “Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew,” McNair candidly wrote about her life in the aftermath of the bombing. When she first heard of Tammie Fields and learned that both were scheduled to attend the same church program, she admitted to being hesitant. “Originally, I didn’t really want to meet her,” McNair confided to AP. “I was kind of nervous about it, even though she didn’t do it. It was almost like meeting the person who killed your sister, in a way. You’re trying to figure out how I should feel about this?”

Despite her reservations, the two women eventually met at another church where Fields was speaking. McNair listened from a pew, and when the event concluded, the two women shared a heartfelt embrace, tears streaming down their faces. “I was extremely, extremely nervous. She had every right not to accept me, but she did,” Fields remembered in a discussion with the AP. McNair recognized the authenticity of Fields’ desire for reconciliation. Fields, now a grandmother with Black children and mixed-race grandchildren, refrained from discussing the bombing for an extended period. However, she now firmly believes that open dialogue is essential for progress. “How is it ever going to change in the world if we’re not honest?” she pondered.

Lisa McNair also expressed concern about the current political climate, where some politicians appear to be deliberately stoking divisive rhetoric. She sees valuable lessons in the events of 60 years ago for today’s society. “So much hate, so much racism is coming back up. That’s the thing that upsets me and saddens me; we should have made more progress. I think we’re going backward instead of forward,” McNair lamented.

During a recent speech in Montgomery, Alabama, McNair unveiled a small box that the funeral home had given to her family and contained items found with Denise, including patent leather shoes, a pocketbook, and a delicate handkerchief. Among these items was a chunk of concrete, about the size of a rock, embedded in Denise’s head, ultimately causing her death. “It shows that racism can kill. Hateful words can kill. And this is a tangible piece of that,” McNair declared solemnly.

The post 60th Anniversary of Birmingham Church Bombing Unites Families of Victims and Perpetrators first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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MacKenzie Scott’s Billion-Dollar Defiance of America’s War on Diversity

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Her most recent gifts to historically Black colleges and universities surpass $400 million this year alone. These are not gestures. They are declarations. They say that the education of Black students is not optional, not expendable and not dependent on the approval of those who fear what an educated Black citizenry represents.

Published

9 hours ago

November 16, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

There are moments in American life when truth steps forward and refuses to be convenient. MacKenzie Scott has chosen such a moment. As political forces move to strip diversity from classrooms, silence Black scholarship, and erase equity from public life, she has gone in the opposite direction. She has invested her wealth in the communities this country has spent centuries trying to marginalize.

Her most recent gifts to historically Black colleges and universities have surpassed $400 million this year alone. These are not gestures. They are declarations. They say that the education of Black students is not optional, not expendable, and not dependent on the approval of those who fear what an educated Black citizenry represents.

And she is not the only woman doing what America’s institutions have refused to do. Melinda French Gates has invested billions in supporting women and girls worldwide, ensuring that those whose rights are most fragile receive the most assistance. At a time when this nation tries to erase Black history and restrict the rights of women, two white women, once married to two of the richest white men in the world, have made clear where they stand. They have said, through their giving, that marginalized people deserve not just acknowledgment but investment.

At Prairie View A and M University, Scott’s $63 million gift became the largest in the institution’s 149-year history. “This gift is more than generous. It is defining and affirming,” President Tomikia P. LeGrande said. “MacKenzie Scott’s investment amplifies the power and promise of Prairie View A and M University.” The university said it plans to strengthen scholarships, expand faculty research, and support critical programs in artificial intelligence, public health, agricultural sustainability, and cybersecurity.

Howard University received an $80 million donation that leaders described as transformative. “On behalf of the entire Howard University community, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Ms. MacKenzie Scott for her extraordinary generosity and steadfast belief in Howard University’s mission,” Wayne A. I. Frederick said. The gift will support student aid, infrastructure, and key expansions in academic and medical research.

Elsewhere, the impact ripples outward. Voorhees University received the most significant gift in its 128-year history. Norfolk State, Morgan State, Spelman, Winston-Salem State, Virginia State, Alcorn State, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore all confirmed contributions that will reshape their futures. Bowie State University received $50 million, also a historic mark. “We are profoundly grateful to MacKenzie Scott for her visionary commitment to education and equity,” President Aminta Breaux said. “The gift empowers us to expand access and uplift generations of students who will lead, serve, and innovate.”

These gifts arrive at a moment when America attempts to revise its own memory. Curriculum bans seek to remove Black history from classrooms. Political movements claim that diversity is dangerous. Women’s contributions are minimized. And institutions that have served Black communities for more than a century must withstand both political hostility and financial neglect.

Scott’s philanthropy does not simply counter these forces. It exposes them. It asserts that Black students, Black institutions, and Black futures deserve resources commensurate with their brilliance. It declares that women’s leadership is not marginal but central to the fight for justice.

This is where the mission of the Black Press becomes intertwined with the story unfolding. For nearly two centuries, the Black Press of America has chronicled the truth of Black life. It has told the stories that others refused to tell, preserved the history that others attempted to bury, and spoken truths that others feared. The National Newspaper Publishers Association, representing more than 200 Black and women-owned newspapers and media companies, continues that mission today despite financial threats that jeopardize independent Black journalism.

Like the HBCUs Scott uplifts, the Black Press has always been more than a collection of institutions. It is a safeguard. It is a mirror. It is the memory of a people whose presence in this nation has been met with both hostility and unimaginable strength. It survives not because it is funded but because it is essential.

Scott’s giving suggests an understanding of this. She has aligned herself with institutions that protect truth, expand opportunity, and preserve the stories this country tries to erase. She has chosen the side of history that refuses to be silent.

“When Bowie State thrives,” declared Brent Swinton, the university’s vice president of Philanthropic Engagement, “our tight-knit community of alumni, families, and partners across the region and beyond thrives with us.”

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The Perfumed Hand of Hypocrisy: Trump Hosted Former Terror Suspect While America Condemns a Muslim Mayor

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — They had the audacity, the gall, the hypocrisy to condemn Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected mayor of New York City, while opening the White House to a man their own government once called a terrorist.

Published

11 hours ago

November 16, 2025

Oakland Post

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

They had the audacity, the gall, the hypocrisy to condemn Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected mayor of New York City, while opening the White House to a man their own government once called a terrorist. It was not long ago that the U.S. Embassy in Syria published a “Rewards for Justice” notice for Muhammad al-Jawlani, offering ten million dollars for his capture. His face, his name, and his crimes were displayed for the world to see. That poster remains online even now, an unaltered monument to America’s selective memory.

Yet this month, that same man, now known as Ahmad al-Sharaa, was greeted in the Oval Office as a partner and friend. The president who bans Muslims, mocks immigrants, and threatens to deport an elected official of color, smiled warmly for the cameras beside a man once sworn to jihad. He called their meeting “friendly and forward-looking” and praised al-Sharaa’s “vision for peace.” The irony was suffocating.

Al-Sharaa, who once commanded al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, now leads the very nation he once helped destroy. His journey from fugitive to head of state may astonish the world, but America’s acceptance of him reveals something far more telling. Trump’s government, which once condemned Syria’s militants as the scourge of civilization, now celebrates their leader as an ally. Perfume was sprayed, hands were clasped, and jokes about wives filled the air where solemnity should have stood.

Meanwhile, in the same breath, the same government seeks to strip Zohran Mamdani of his citizenship. They accuse him of deceit, of sympathizing with terrorists, of bringing danger into America’s heart. His only crime is being Muslim and refusing to bow. Born in Uganda, raised in New York, and dedicated to serving its people, Mamdani ran a campaign focused on housing and affordability. For that, he was branded a threat. His opponents called him a “communist,” a “jihadist,” and worse. They moved to bar him from office, claiming he lied on his citizenship papers, though no such proof exists.

To his supporters, Mamdani stands for the very ideals this nation claims to defend. Yet the same leaders who cheer for a man with blood on his hands work tirelessly to silence a man with none. When Mamdani spoke of the cruel normalcy of Islamophobia, he described not just prejudice, but policy. It has become acceptable, even expected, for power in this nation to punish the devout and uplift the dangerous, to vilify the righteous and sanctify the reformed militant.

How easily the American conscience bends when profit, politics, or spectacle call. They will weep for victims of terror while shaking hands with its architects. They will warn of radicalism while applauding those who once preached it. And they will condemn the faithful who dare to lead in peace, because their peace threatens the myth of superiority.

A nation that once vowed to bring terrorists to justice now protects them in the halls of its highest office. The president who vowed to protect America from Islam now embraces a man who once led its enemies in battle. Yet a Muslim mayor, chosen by the people, is told he does not belong.

Such contradictions do not mark strength, but moral decay. A country that rewards violence and punishes virtue stands stripped of its own credibility. This is not the land of freedom it claims to be. It is a land that kneels before its own hypocrisy.

“To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct; there are many New Yorkers who face it,” Mamdani stated. “It is the tolerance of that indignity that does. No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.”

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OP-ED: The 50-Year Mortgage Is a Trap, not a Path to Black Wealth

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE – For Black families already fighting a manufactured wealth gap, this isn’t a path to ownership. It is a debt trap that drains equity, delays retirement, and repeats the same housing discrimination that locked us out generations ago.

Published

20 hours ago

November 15, 2025

Oakland Post

By Constance Carter
Wealth Advocate

Einstein called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world. Those who understand it earn it. Those who do not pay it. That is why the Trump administration is floating a 50-year mortgage. They are betting that we will not see the true cost.

He, him, and they are framing this as a path to affordability. But let me show you what it really is.

Let’s look at the math for a $420,000 home at 7 percent interest.

30-year mortgage:
Payment: $2,792 per month
Total interest: $586,332

50-year mortgage:
Payment: $2,527 per month
Total interest: $1,095,029

You save about $265 a month but pay an extra $508,697 in interest.
Half a million dollars.

That’s not a discount. It is a trap. Stretching a loan across five decades hands banks hundreds of thousands of dollars that will never circulate through our families or build our wealth.

The numbers don’t lie.

The median age of a first-time homebuyer in 2025 is 40, according to the National Association of Realtors. If a 40-year-old signs a 50-year mortgage, they will not own their home until they are 90.

Ninety years old.

You will be renting from a bank for half a century. This is not what the 30-year mortgage was designed to do.

When the 30-year mortgage gained popularity in the 1950s, the average home was priced around $7,354, and the typical interest rate was about 4 percent. One income could support a family and pay a mortgage. The mortgage system we are being asked to trust today was never designed with our interests in mind.

From 1934 to the 1960s, the Federal Housing Administration refused to insure mortgages for Black families, calling it an “economically sound” policy. This helped establish the red lines on maps that labeled Black neighborhoods as “too risky.” Even Black veterans who served in World War II were denied access to GI Bill home loans that helped white families build generational wealth.

Black families were just as qualified to buy those affordable homes but were denied access.

White families purchased homes for $7,000 in the 1950s that are now worth $300,000 to $400,000. That appreciation built the white middle class. Black families were locked out by design.

If they move forward with the 50-year mortgage plan, working-class Black families in particular will feel the impact first, depleting the wealth we have accumulated despite all the barriers we’ve faced.

Prices are high. Rates are high. Affordability is at its lowest point in decades. We need two incomes, side hustles, credit stacking, and divine intervention to compete with institutional investors and inflated housing prices.

A 50-year mortgage does not solve this. It expands the burden by creating the illusion of affordability and traps people in a cycle of debt for life.

Think about retirement.

The average Social Security check is about $1,900 a month. Even if the program still exists in its current form by the time today’s buyers reach retirement age, how will they manage a $2,500 to $3,000 mortgage and still afford food, medicine, and basic living costs?

A 50-year mortgage pushes Black homeowners into a future where retirement is impossible, which is its own form of bondage. Bondage is debt you cannot escape. Bondage is owing a bank money until the day you die.

The data on Black wealth is already alarming. A report from Prosperity Now and the Institute for Policy Studies predicts that by 2053, the median wealth of Black Americans will fall to zero if trends do not change. A 50-year mortgage moves us closer to that outcome.

The legacy of housing discrimination still shapes today’s wealth divide. What we need is access, not more years added to a loan.

The real solutions are clear:

Affordable housing construction.
Lower interest rates.
Higher wages.
Down payment assistance.
Regulation on hedge funds buying entire neighborhoods.
Stronger consumer protections against products disguised as opportunities.

A 50-year mortgage solves none of this. It solves one thing for banks. Profit.

Family, do not make decisions today that will bankrupt your future. Before you sign a 50-year mortgage, ask yourself:

Will I still be paying this when I am supposed to be retired?
Will this help me build equity or delay it?
Will this protect or drain my family’s wealth?

A mortgage should be a path to ownership.
We cannot build generational wealth on a foundation of generational debt.