Rhetoric Race and Religion
On August 28, 1963, King delivered his most famous address, the “Dream” speech. Back in Birmingham a little over two weeks later, King’s dream turned into a nightmare.
On the morning of September 15, 1963, a group of nearly thirty black children sat in a basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church, awaiting the closing prayers of a sermon entitled “The Love That Forgives.” Upstairs, adult black congregants gathered for the upcoming service. They had seen a lot in their town over the last several months. And what they were about to see confirmed the worst fears of many about the consequences of nonviolence.
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was at the forefront of the nationally televised civil rights struggles, which included protesters’ encounters with snarling dogs and fire hoses that shot off powerful streams of water that stripped the bark off trees.
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