PHOTO CREDIT: Photo © 2013 Roger Arvid Anderson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The memorial for the four girls killed in the
1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church will be shipped this week from Mussi Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, California. The life size bronze and steel sculpture will be transported to Birmingham, installed and unveiled Saturday, September 14 at 4p.m.
“This is very exciting for the Four Spirits Inc. board, the people and organizations who have graciously supported this project and the entire community,” board vice chairman Chervis Isom says. “Our objective is to create an appropriate and lasting public memorial for the four girls. We are thankful to sculptor Elizabeth MacQueen for her tireless work.”
The memorial, which features the four girls at a bench surrounded by doves, is nearly 10 feet tall and five feet long. It will be placed on the corner of Sixteenth Street North and Sixth Avenue North at the edge of Kelly Ingram Park.
MacQueen, a Birmingham native, says she has tried to capture what she felt about each girl based on her research and discussions with several family members. She describes the design as “full of emotion and movement.”
Four Spirits Inc. is nearing its goal of $250,000 to fund the project. A fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, September 5, from 5p.m. until 6:30p.m. at Wiggins Childs Quinn and Pantazis LLC at The Historic Kress Building. Alabama’s First Lady Dianne Bentley and Birmingham’s First Lady Dr. Sharon Bell will serve as honorary co-chairs of the event.
“We are honored to have the support of Mrs. Bentley and Dr. Bell as we work to memorialize the four girls, whose sacrifice transformed the nation,” Four Spirits board member and Birmingham attorney Martha Bozeman says.
“We look forward to people coming out Thursday to learn more about this project,” fellow board member and United Way of Central Alabama President and CEO Drew Langloh says. “Everyone I talk with about this project wants to be involved.”
Donations can be made online at FourSpirits1963.com.
Four Spirits Inc. is a nonprofit organization formed for the purpose of soliciting funds and contracting for the establishment of an appropriate and lasting memorial in honor of the four girls killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on September
15, 1963.
For more information, go to FourSpirits1963.com
