By Joseph D. Bryant | jbryant@al.com
As the 62nd anniversary of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing approaches, a group of Birmingham residents and historians want to ensure that two young men killed in racial violence that day are remembered.
Virgil Ware, a 13-year-old Black boy was shot and killed on Sept 15, 1963 while riding on the handlebars of his brother’s bicycle. The boys were in Docena, an unincorporated community just outside Birmingham. The two white male youths involved in the shooting never served time for their actions.
The newly created Virgil L. Ware Institute and Lecture Series was formed to preserve the memory of Ware and Robinson.
While the victims of the church bombing, 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, are well documented, Ware and Robinson’s stories are not as widely known.
The initiative was championed by Roderick Royal, a former longtimeinstructor of African American history at Miles College and UAB.
“The city and many residents are interested in telling the story about Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson and I believe that every story that helped in the striving toward freedom in Birmingham ought to be known by the public,” said Royal, who is also a former Birmingham city councilman who once served as interim mayor.
The institute also aims to create a memorial dedicated to both young men. The speaker’s series is designed to educate the public on historical and contemporary issues regarding civil rights.
The first speaker’s event is at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 16 at the Birmingham Public Library downtown.
Birmingham historian Horace Huntley will conduct the first lecture.
“I contend that we have a form of amnesia and that amnesia goes way back when,” Huntley said. “I’m going to be talking about the necessity to remember to say the names of Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson and give instances of other names that we need to remember as well.”
Huntley has served as director of oral history for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and is a former professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Both Ware and Robinson in 2013 were posthumously inducted into Birmingham’s Gallery of Distinguished Citizens. Ware’s father was present for the dedication. He died a month later.
“Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson’s story are important when we consider the many struggles toward freedom in Birmingham,” Royal said. “This committee and I are concerned with the story being tied into the permanent fabric of Birmingham’s civil rights movement. We hope that by engaging the public we can ultimately have a permanent marker for future generations to see.”
