Sarah Collins Rudolph, Survivor
Sarah Collins Rudolph.
Say her name.
She was the fifth little girl in the basement washroom of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., on Sept. 15, 1963, when KKK terrorists—fomented by Gov. George Wallace and his henchman Bull Connor—set off dynamite under the steps of the church on Youth Day. The washroom was behind the steps. One minute, the five girls were chatting. The next, Addie Mae Collins, 14; Carole Robertson, 14; Cynthia Wesley, 11; and Denise McNair, 14 were dead in the rubble, while 12-year-old Sarah Collins was left standing in the dust with shrapnel in her face and eyes.
What history recorded that day was the violent deaths of four little girls in the church basement washroom. It was a moment so blatant and intolerable, it pushed a president’s signature onto the Civil Rights Act. It would later be mythologized in a Spike Lee film, “4 Little Girls.”
Except there were five.
History lost track of Sarah Collins, but Sarah Collins did not lose track of history. She lives it every day. She lost her right eye and the left was injured. She has 60 years of medical bills, plus the untold cost of post-traumatic stress disorder—a panoply of physiological and emotional after-effects that make life hard. Real hard. So when we use the term “survivor” with Mrs. Rudolph, it deserves a moment of reflection, this triumphant life sentence.
“Sarah deserves restitution for all she has suffered!” her husband George Rudolph said on a recent afternoon from their home in Birmingham, Ala., probably not for the first time. “She has suffered for 60 years. Survivors of 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing… they got restitution. Sarah deserves the same thing. She went through a terrorist act. She went to church with her sister, and came back without her sister.”
After decades of dealing with trauma on her own—Mrs. Rudolph published her story in 2020, “The 5th Little Girl: Soul Survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (The Sarah Collins Rudolph Story). She has traveled the country retelling it, securing an indirect apology from a Republican governor and declining a White House invitation because she will accept nothing less than restitution. (A crowdfunding effort is in progress at NurturingJustice.org , by those who want to help Mrs. Rudolph in the meantime.)
Mrs. Rudolph generously shared her perspective as we respectfully commemorate the passing of 60 years since that horrific day.
Mrs. Rudolph, what do you want us all to know today?
When I walked out the door – it’s been 60 years now. I haven’t been given restitution. I lost an eye in that and it damaged the other one, and no one has given me restitution. Gov. Wallace and Bull Conner were directing people to be violent. They put high-pressure water hoses on the young people. They kept segregation going on, and that’s why I keep going.
I still want people to know that the Civil Rights Bill was for what went on here in Alabama—the lives they took from those girls. They said all that on the news. [The public was] very unhappy about it. Kennedy wanted to sign the Civil Rights Bill, but they killed him in ’63, so Johnson had to sign it.
What would you change right now if you had a magic wand?
If I had a magic wand, I would change people’s hearts. So many Black people are getting killed for nothing. It’s time for us to start loving one another now. God made us all.
Did you ever consider leaving Birmingham?
I still live in Birmingham. In Forestdale. I like it here. There’s a lot of peace. The doctors are close. I wanted to leave when all that was going on, but my people were here in Alabama.
Are more people learning about your story?
Yes, they are. The book tells it all. I was the only survivor.
Do you often hear about how strong you are?
Yes. People that I’ve come in contact with, when I go out on speaking engagements.
I think it’s nice, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to work and make a living.
You’ve done incredible things. You published a biography; turned down a White House invitation and received an apology from a Republican governor…
No I did not. I didn’t receive an apology. [Gov. Kay Ivey] did apologize, but she did it through the media. They didn’t invite me over and apologize.
A lot of people didn’t know there was a fifth girl, because when the [Spike Lee] movie was made about the “4 little girls,” that’s when people started saying “the four little girls.”
What would 12-year-old Sarah Collins like to say to the world?
Stop all the hate. Stop all the killing. People love those that was killed, so they need to just stop all the hate that’s going on.
Of all people who have such an overwhelming reason to not forgive—what is your perspective of forgiveness and how do you experience it?
I had to forgive those people because God forgave us for our sins. You can forgive them. It helps you. It helped me to forgive. I had a mad look on my face for so many years. An angry look.
Did you ever lose faith in God?
I never lost faith. I was just nervous about going into a church. I knew it was God that spared the fifth little girl. I was nervous to be in church. I’m not anymore.
What makes you most hopeful?
I’m hoping I’ll get restitution, after all these years. I hope it would be in the millions. I’m still paying bills for my eyes. I’ve been putting out money ever since it happened. I still have symptoms and pain from that day. I have PTSD. It makes me shaky. I always feel like something is crashing down around me.
I’ll never give up on that. We had a governor that was involved in the racism and segregation that was going on…
“It’s overdue,” Mr. Rudolph adds. “It’s not fair she had to wait all this time. She’s had to pay out of pocket for all that happened to her. She deserves it. Sarah deserves it. How would they feel if it was one of their family members? Sarah could have went blind!”
“They removed my right eye when I was 13 years old,” she said.
What’s your safe place?
Really, at home, and through prayer.
What is the thought you’d like to leave everyone with today?
I just want people to know it’s time to get together and start loving one another and stop shooting and killing one another. We had fights when we were young, but we weren’t killing one another. Blacks have gone through a lot of stuff just being in the world. We can all love each other. They don’t have to kill us because we’re Black. God made us all in His image.
Sarah Collins Rudolph.
Say her name.
As a nation, if we care for the Beloved Community, we must move our feet, our hands, our hearts, our resources to build and not tear down, to reconcile and not to divide, to love and not to hate.