United Kingdom

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Birmingham, Alabama

23 October 2005
Rice, Britain's Straw Recall Civil Rights Struggle in Alabama

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama October 22 to participate in a ceremony marking a 1963 event she defined as "homegrown terrorism of the worst sort" in the midst of the African-American struggle to achieve full civil rights.

The ceremony was the high point of a homecoming visit during which the secretary was accompanied by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Rice joined Straw in addressing a commemoration called "Tragedy to Triumph," which she said was "about Addie Mae Collins and Denise McNair and Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley" -- four African-American schoolgirls who were killed by a bomb that exploded in the church where they were attending Sunday school on May 15, 1963.

The secretary reminisced that "Denise [McNair] was my friend ... we played together ... We were children together."

According to Rice, this tragedy resonated because "it was meant to shatter our spirit." The bombing was a message to African-Americans seeking equal civil rights, "just a few weeks after Martin Luther King had said, 'I have a dream,' to tell us that no, we didn't have a dream and that that dream was going to be denied," she said.

Instead, the Birmingham church bombing was a factor in forcing the United States to come to terms with its "birth defect" -- the contradictions between the wording of the Constitution and its enactment, she said.

The United States "finally came to terms with the contradictions that when the Founding Fathers said, 'We the people,' they didn't mean many of us, " Rice said. "[I]t was in the death of four little girls … [that] the resolution of those contradictions was begun and America emerged a better place."

Straw recalled hearing the news of the bombing when he was a teenager. He said the event was pivotal because "the world as well, not just Birmingham, would start to come to its senses about the fact that we're all part of one brotherhood and sisterhood, without regards to race and religion and creed."

IRAQ

During an interview with Rice and Straw the same day by BBC-1, Rice drew parallels between the U.S. civil rights movement and the current situation in Iraq.

"Just because you're a democracy doesn't mean that you're perfect. Everybody has a long journey. The United States has had a particularly long journey, given our heritage of slavery, but indeed we have made enormous progress," she said. "And that is an important lesson to countries that are just beginning their struggle for multiethnic democracy."

Rice noted that in Iraq, "they've had a government that received sovereignty, they had elections, they've now had a constitution written, they've had a referendum -- they're going to have permanent elections. So the political process is going forward."

"You have evil people … who seem determined to try to throw this off course. But they haven't been able to," the secretary continued. Instead, in a "real defeat for the terrorists ... people went to the polls in larger numbers [to vote on a constitutional referendum October 15] than they went to the polls in January." (See Iraq’s Political Process.)

ZIMBABWE

In another interview the same day with The Birmingham News, Rice was asked about the situation in Zimbabwe under the autocratic regime of President Robert Mugabe, which she called an "outrage." She responded that the United States has sanctioned Zimbabwe, but acknowledged that "we have little leverage."

She commended both Straw for his "strong voice" and the Commonwealth, an alliance made up of former British colonies, for its suspension of Zimbabwe's membership. The secretary called on the African states to take action against the abuses in Zimbabwe. "If the African Union were really strong about Zimbabwe, I think you would have a much better chance of success," she said. (See related article.)

SUDAN

Rice also noted that the United States is working with the African Union through NATO to get aid to the troubled Darfur region of Sudan. She called on the Sudanese government to "work harder on protecting people from violence." (See Darfur Humanitarian Emergency Archive.)

See also "Rice Calls Report of Syrian Role in Hariri Killing 'Troubling.'"

For more information on race relations in the United States, see Civil Rights in the United States and Gateway to African American History.

The transcripts of Rice and Straw's interviews with BBC-1 and The Birmingham News are available at the State Department Web site.

Following is a transcript of Rice’s and Straw's remarks at the "Tragedy to Triumph" event:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
(Birmingham, Alabama)
October 22, 2005

REMARKS

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
And Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom Jack Straw

October 22, 2005
Kelly Ingram Park
Birmingham, Alabama

(10:00 a.m. EDT)

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. Thank you, first of all, for welcoming me home and thank you for letting me be a part of this wonderful ceremony of Tragedy to Triumph.

I want to thank my good friend, Carol. She told you a bit more about me and maybe, Carol, I'm not so sure I hit the ball that well, but I'm glad you remember it that way. (Laughter.) I want to thank Foreign Minister Straw for being here and Mrs. Perkins, his wife, and our Ambassador and Lady Manning, who came with me from Washington. I want to thank the members of my family who are here and many childhood friends who are in the audience. And I just have to single out a couple people: Burnetta C. Hill Principal Mr. Parnell Jones is here and I just want to thank you for being here, Mr. Jones.

(Applause.)

But this is a day about Addie Mae Collins and Denise McNair and Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. And Denise was my friend, as Mr. McNair said, we played together, we sang together in little musicals. We were children together and we played with dolls together. And that picture of Denise with her doll will always be near and dear to my heart; and the other girls had similar experiences, of course. They had their friends and their dolls and their churches and their singing and their school plays. And when I think of them, I think first and foremost of them like that, as little girls who were just growing up and one day they were just at Sunday school. And as God would have it, they were at Sunday school when America experienced homegrown terrorism of the worst sort, when somebody decided that on a Sunday morning, in a house of God, he was going to have a bomb planted so that human beings who were just there to worship God would be hurt.

And so whenever I think of Addie and Denise and Carole and Cynthia, I think, too, of what occurred there and what they represent, which is that when America experienced its own homegrown terrorism, it was meant to shatter our spirit. It was meant to say that we couldn't rise up. It was meant, just a few weeks after Martin Luther King had said, "I have a dream," to tell us that no, we didn't have a dream and that that dream was going to be denied. And so when I think of Addie and Denise and Carole and Cynthia, I think of their triumph as a fact that that dream was, in fact, not denied.

Now, sometimes when I think of them, I wonder what they would be doing today, because they were, of course, very near my own age. And as I said about Carol, the children of Birmingham are quite exceptional. I tell people all the time, if you look around Birmingham and you look at the children that Birmingham has produced, I'm one of many. (Applause.) And I'm one of many because this is a community that loved its children, that educated its children, that cared for its children, that prayed with its children, that expected a lot of its children. And so I know that the real tragedy is that Addie Mae and Denise and Cynthia and Carole would have been special, just like many of the children of Birmingham. There's no telling what they would have done.

But even though they were denied the chance to grow up and to do the great things that I'm sure they would have done, in their death they represent for us the very tragedy to triumph that we're celebrating because we were not denied. Birmingham was not denied and because Birmingham was not denied, America finally came to terms with its birth defect. It finally came to terms with the contradictions that when the Founding Fathers said, "We the people," they didn't mean many of us, but Birmingham finally came to terms with those contradictions.

And it is ironic that it was in the death of four little girls, in a city that loves its children, that Birmingham was finally made to face up to those contradictions. America was finally made to face up to those contradictions. Those contradictions were -- the resolution of those contradictions was begun and America emerged a better place. And so to their memories, I want to say thank you to their families; but to their eternal souls I know they rest with God. I know they rest with God, grateful that they are remembered for what they meant and what they did for each and everyone of us.

Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

FOREIGN SECRETARY STRAW: Thank you very much. Mayor Kincaid, Secretary Rice, members of the Birmingham Council, ladies and gentlemen, above all the families here of Addie Mae, Denise, Cynthia and Carole, I want to thank you all, but particularly the families of those four little girls for allowing my wife, Alice, British Ambassador David Manning and his wife Lady Manning, the rest of the British delegation and myself to share with you in this most extraordinary and moving ceremony here this morning in Birmingham, Alabama. And thank you, Condi, for inviting us to do so.

I was 17 on May the 15th, 1963. And in those days, things took a long time to travel. I remember hearing about this awful bombing across the street here on 16th Street, wondering about it. I never, ever thought that 42 years later I'd be here to commemorate the loss of these four little girls; but to witness something else extraordinary about the human spirit, about how out of not just a tragedy but out of the most unspeakable evil, we have seen the triumph here in Birmingham, Alabama of good over evil, the best of the human spirit.

It was terrible that this bombing as we heard from Condi took place in all places in a church, in a house of God, on a Sunday. But in a strange way, it was also fitting that out of the shock of a bombing of a church and the killing of four young children, Birmingham and Alabama and the United States and the world -- because it's the world as well, not just Birmingham, would start to come to its senses about the fact that we're all part of one brotherhood and sisterhood, without regards to race and religion and creed. And that Birmingham should be such an example to the rest of the world these days.

So thank you for allowing us to be with you today. We mourn the loss of Addie Mae, of Denise, of Cynthia and of Carole with you. We salute their families and we salute Birmingham, Alabama.

Thank you very much, indeed.

(Applause.)

back to top ^