There were five girls in the ladies dressing room at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham when a bomb planted by Ku Klux Klan members exploded, killing four girls on Sept. 15, 1963.
Sarah Collins Rudolph lost her 14-year-old sister, Addie Mae Collins.
She also lost her right eye and her emotional stability.
Now 62, Collins Rudolph works as a housekeeper. She never had children, is on her third marriage and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. In the 50 years since the blast sent glass and debris flying into her 12-year-old face, Collins Rudolph has tried hard to recover.
She returned to school a few months after the bombing, but never again did well on her lessons. A teacher accused her of being spoiled and pushed her in the back when she couldn’t perfect a sewing stitch.
She still finds it difficult to concentrate and has trouble driving. “It just has me nervous all the time, like something is going to run into to me, you know?”
“I still have spots on my face that I have to cover up (with makeup),” she said. “It’s something that I will never be able to forget.”
In the weeks and months after the bombing, she never received counseling. As an adult, she thought about leaving the city and starting fresh, but never had money to do so.
The Rev. Calvin Woods, now 79, was one of the Birmingham ministers who led demonstrations to desegregate public facilities. There was so much anger and fear in the aftermath of the bombing that it took time for people to have the strength and courage to move on, Woods said.
Collins Rudolph, the person most seriously injured in the explosion that killed her sister — as well as Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, also 14 — got lost in the shuffle when it came to the city’s healing process.
She believes the city of Birmingham should pay her $10 million in restitution. “Especially when you know the police were involved (in the Klan),” she said. “I know we should have got something, but we never did.”
Collins Rudolph said she has talked to various attorneys over the years about seeking restitution but the effort went nowhere. Her husband, George C. Rudolph, is angry that others have profited from the church bombing, people like filmmaker Spike Lee, who made the documentary “Four Little Girls,” and city leaders and business owners who will make money off of this week’s celebrations to mark the anniversary of the church bombing.
Birmingham Mayor William Bell sympathizes with Collins Rudolph, but says there is nothing the city can do. That would take state legislation, Bell said.
Collins Rudolph plans to attend Tuesday’s ceremony in Washington, D.C., where she and other family members will receive a Congressional gold medal posthumously for their loved ones. She hopes to gain some measure of healing from that recognition.
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