A Church is Burning by Paul Simon
Commemorating Sep. 15, 1963 - the dynamiting of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for this week’s song, A Church is Burning, written by Paul Simon, released in 1965.
If you’d like to hear the song before you read the background, you’ll find a YouTube video with lyrics at the end of the article.
Comments and questions are welcome. Please be respectful of others’ opinions if they should differ from yours.
For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
The Background
(622 words)
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
In the 1960s, Birmingham was known for its racial discrimination and keeping the races apart (segregation).
From the 1930s through the 1950s, Birmingham had laws that separated Blacks and Whites. For example, one city law stated:
It is not allowed for someone who is Black and someone who is White to play cards, dice, dominoes, checkers, baseball, softball, football, basketball, or similar games together.
Everything was separate. An owner of a restaurant, bowling alley, or theater had to keep the races separate, including toilets and sometimes, entrances. If the owner did not do this, the owner could be made to pay a fine.
George Wallace was the governor of the state of Alabama. He wanted to keep racial separation. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a group known for supporting White supremacy (the idea that white people are better than other races) through violence. The KKK was strong in Birmingham. Eugene “Bull” Connor, the city’s police chief, was famous for using violent methods to control protests by activists, union members, and Black people. This means that the people in positions of power and the laws of the system supported keeping Black people in a lower position in society.
However, little by little, the laws changed. In 1963, the laws shown above were cancelled. Some people were not happy about the changes. In 1963, the situation was so bad that homemade bombs frequently exploded in Black homes and churches.
Civil rights activists focused on Birmingham because many people there supported White supremacy. The activists wanted to end racial separation in the southern United States.
The 16th Street Baptist Church played an important role in civil rights efforts. Many protests began there, but the church was targeted by KKK members who made bomb threats to interrupt meetings and services.
On September 15, 1963, at 10:22 a.m., the church had about 200 people who were there for a church service. A bomb exploded at the church, killing four young girls and injuring many others.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at the funeral for Carol Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14). Thousands of people attended. As the caskets were being taken out of the church, a man said, “Where are we safe? Not in our homes, not in school, now not even in church.” The people began to sing We Shall Overcome and later, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around (McWhorter, 2002, p. 537).
The FBI had information about the bombers in 1965 but the director, J. Edgar Hoover, refused to do anything (Katz, 1995, p. 520). Only years later, in 1977, Klan leader Robert E. Chambliss went to prison for the bombing. The case was opened again in the more recent years, and two more former Klan members went to jail in 2001 and 2002.
The Song
When we look at the lyrics, the songwriters took some liberty with the facts, for example, dynamite was used to destroy the building, not kerosene, but the meaning is clear:
Three hooded men through the back roads did creep
Torches in their hands while the village lies asleep
Down to the church where, just hours before
Voices were singing, and
Hands were beating, and
Saying, “I won’t be a slave anymore.”
In the next line, the lyrics say three hooded men. This probably refers to members of the Ku Klux Klan who often wore robes with hoods at meetings.
Three hooded men, their hands lit the spark
And they faded in the night, and they vanished in the dark
And in the cold light of morning, there is nothing that remains
But the ashes of a Bible and a can of kerosene
Two questions for my readers:
• In the chorus of the song, the lyrics talk about the flames of the fire and repeat the words like hands that are praying. What do you think this means?
• Why would the fire say, “You can burn down my churches, but I shall be free?” In your opinion, what does the fire represent?
There are no right or wrong answers, by the way. Please leave your thoughts in a comment below!
VOCABULARY
discrimination 差別
fine 罰金
explode 爆発する
bomb threat 爆破予告
injure 傷つける
“take some liberty with” means to say something in a way that’s not completely accurate
kerosene 灯油
creep 忍び足で歩く
spark 火の粉
fade 消える
vanish 消える
ash 灰
SOURCES
A&E Television Networks. Birmingham Church bombing. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/birmingham-church-bombing. Accessed 1 September 2023.
Archibald, J. A. (2023a, September 15). Archibald: What school books won’t teach about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. https://www.al.com/news/2023/09/what-alabama-textbooks-wont-teach-about-the-16th-street-baptist-church-bombing.html Accessed 1 September 2023.
Katz, W. L. (1995). Eyewitness: A living documentary of the African American contribution to American history. Simon & Schuster.
McWhorter, D. (2002). Carry me home: Birmingham, Alabama: The climactic battle of the civil rights revolution. Simon & Schuster.
Segregation ordinances. Bhamwiki. https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Segregation_ordinances. Accessed 1 September 2023.
For a discussion on the capitalization of terms, see:
Capitalizing black and white: Grammatical justice and equity. RSS. https://www.macfound.org/press/perspectives/capitalizing-black-and-white-grammatical-justice-and-equity
For more photos of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: Photos from 1963, see:
https://www.al.com/galleries/7UEV2NIHPVEP5FMKT7P272SN5A/
For a deeper look at the event, please see Heataher Cox Richardson’s post here on Substack:
