Pastor of Ala. Church Bombed in '63 Dies

Source: Associated Press

Pastor of Ala. Church Bombed in '63 Dies

Saturday November 17, 2007 9:46 PM

ATLANTA (AP) - The Rev. John H. Cross Jr., who
dug through the rubble of his Alabama church
looking for survivors of a bombing and then
presided over a funeral for some of the youngest
victims of civil rights-era violence, has died.
He was 82.

Cross, who had been in failing health since a
series of strokes, died Thursday at DeKalb Medical
at Hillandale, his daughter, Barbara, told the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 1962, he became pastor of the Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham, which had become
one a haven for civil rights activities. On Sept. 15,
1963, a bomb went off during preparations for a
youth service.

Barbara Cross remembers that after the explosion,
her father started digging through the debris.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7085310,00.html

...what was suffered to bring us to this day.

Hekate