16th Street Baptist Church marks bombing anniversary with a new visitor center

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Sixty-three years ago, dynamite planted by Ku Klux Klan members exploded through the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls as they prepared for Sunday services.

Hundreds of people filled the church on Tuesday on the 63rd anniversary of the bombing. The church marked the anniversary with the opening of a new visitors center that leaders said is aimed at educating people about one of the most horrific events of the Civil Rights Movement and urging a recommitment to continue the struggle for justice.

Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and the guest speaker for the annual memorial service, said the remembrance falls at a time when politicians are trying to take content out of museums, attacking the Voting Rights Act and turning to the politics of division.

“We’re in a critical moment in America. There is a narrative struggle. There are people who are preaching the politics of fear and anger, and they want to govern through fear and anger,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson, who helped build memorials and museums tracing the legacy of slavery in America, said a “whole network of elected officials" — not only the Klan — shared responsibility for the climate that led to the deadly bombing.

“And today we have those same voices, and we have to stand against those voices by being committed to truth and justice,” Stevenson said.

Klansmen had placed a bundle of dynamite outside the church under a set of stairs. The bombing came during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, eight months after then-Gov. George Wallace pledged “segregation forever.”

The girls were gathered in a downstairs washroom before Sunday services when the dynamite exploded at 10:22 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1963. The explosion killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, all 14. A fifth girl, Sarah Collins Rudolph, the sister of Addie Mae, was in the room and was severely injured but survived.

Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted in the blast: Robert Chambliss in 1977; Thomas Blanton in 2001; and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002.

The opening of the education center comes at a time of uncertainty about how history is presented in national parks and museums. President Donald Trump in March 2025 signed an executive order aimed at defunding museum exhibits and programs that he said promote “divisive narratives.”

The church sits within the bounds of the National Park Service's civil rights monument in Birmingham, an area that includes the park where Black protesters were met by police dogs and fire hoses. But the church independently runs the visitors center.

The new center has space for exhibits, oral history initiatives, artist residencies, community quilting projects, public speaker series and other programming.

Church leaders envision the center as a place where people can reflect after visiting the church and bombing site.

“I want them to take away that history is not just in the past. History is also present, and that there’s still work to do,” said the Rev. Arthur Price Jr., the pastor of 16th Street Baptist. “When we talk about the challenges in our country, when we talk about the injustice, the inequity, and the inequality, there’s still a whole lot of work for us to do.”

Lisa McNair’s sister, Denise, was one of the girls who lost their lives in the 1963 bombing.

“It’s part of our shared American history, and if we don’t know our history, we’re destined to repeat it,” McNair said at Tuesday's event.

This photo taken with a smartphone shows members of the congregation and guests bowing their heads during a commemoration service in honor of the 63rd anniversary of the church's bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

This photo taken with a smartphone shows a person standing inside the visitor and education center at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

This photo taken with a smartphone shows Rev. Arthur Price, Jr., left, and Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, attending a commemoration service in honor of the 63rd anniversary of the church's bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

The statue named, "The Four Spirits," is seen near the 16th Street Baptist Church, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The 16th Street Education and Visitor Center is seen Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The 16th Street Education and Visitor Center is seen Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The 16th Street Baptist Church is seen Sept. 9, 2026, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that proposes to fix some of the biggest problems in college sports — spiraling spending, constant lawsuits and a transfer portal run amok — cleared a major hurdle Tuesday when the Senate voted 74-24 to halt debate and move the measure one step closer to a final up-or-down vote.

The Protect College Sports Act, a bill co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called “a bipartisan solution designed to bring order to the chaos” easily cleared the 60-vote threshold it needed to stop the filibuster.

Co-sponsor Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the lopsided nature of the vote left her “cautiously optimistic” it could get through the House, which has failed repeatedly in passing a different version of a college sports bill.

There remains, however, a persistent block of opposition.

“What this bill does at its core is to protect a system of exploitation,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

Notably, all four Black Democrats in the Senate — Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks — voted against the bill that is strongly opposed by the NAACP.

The vote came a week after college football's most recent crisis — a scheduled meeting of school presidents in the Southeastern Conference to expel LSU over its now-canceled plans to place players on the roster who had participated in NFL training camps.

Calmer heads prevailed. The eligibility lawsuit that triggered the mess is the sort of litigation the bill would outlaw.

“That was probably like a big lamp for some people who saw it and said, ‘Oh my God, this is so out of control,’" Cantwell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You can see how out-of-hand the situation was getting.”

Cantwell and Cruz introduced the bill in late May and it nearly died without the support of the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences. Compromises helped get them on board, then it became a matter of getting the bill onto the floor of the busy upper chamber.

At around the time the vote took place, Cantwell released a report that outlined a “spending spiral” that has taken hold of college sports since name-image-likeness payments began.

Among its findings: There was a $519.9 million increase in institutional and government support of athletic programs between 2015 and 2025 among the 53 schools in the Power Four whose data was publicly available. The bill promises to harness that in a number of ways, including:

— Placing into law the 22% cap (around $21.5 million this year) on revenue colleges are allowed to share with their players — an amount agreed to in the House settlement that defined the rules over paying players. It would add a $27.5 million “retention pool” for schools to keep current players in a move that could bring some of the hard-to-regulate third-party NIL deals back in-house.

— Giving conferences the option of pooling their TV media rights, a move proponents say could raise between $4 billion and $8 billion in additional revenue. The SEC and Big Ten disagree and say they would not participate.

— Restricting players to one “free” transfer where they wouldn't have to sit out a year, which could limit bidding wars that take place year-round in the transfer portal.

— Placing into law the NCAA's new rule that allows players five years of eligibility, but no more.

Critics say the NCAA, which has struggled to police its business for the last 100 years, shouldn't be getting more power.

“Over and over again, courts have determined that colleges and the NCAA and conferences are violating the law,” Murphy said.

The bill, however, has gained support from a long list of sports leaders, including retired football coach Nick Saban and Deion Sanders of Colorado, and basketball coaches John Calipari of Arkansas and Mark Few of Gonzaga.

“I think this clears up about 75-80% of our issues,” Calipari said at a news conference in Washington on Monday, the eve of the vote. “Nothing is perfect. This is a bite out of the apple.”

Though the bill passed on a bipartisan measure, some lawmakers view it as their best chance to do something with the uncertainty of the upcoming election looming. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber. Democrats are trying to flip the Senate in November’s midterms, which can complicate the legislative agenda.

“We’re going to get one shot at this, and I don’t know if we ever will again soon,” said another co-sponsor, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., just ahead of the vote. “We’ve got a moment.”

The bill, he said, could “define the trajectory of college athletics.”

Pells reported from Denver.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., left, speaks as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., second from right, listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)