#the wilde

Music Video Recommendation: “I can’t sleep alone tonight” by The Wilde

[bsa_pro_ad_space id=3] “I can’t sleep alone tonight” by The Wilde The Wilde and his latest album have just become the gift that keeps on giving, each time there’s a new road to travel through the melodies that make up ‘Coverups’. This time we fall into mesmerizing melodrama that is “I can’t sleep alone tonight” and connect with the beauty that blends the tunes of Manchester Orchestra and The…

September 15, 1963, marks one of the most notorious, racially motivated attacks against black Americans in the US. Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14), were murdered by a group of KKK members in Birmingham, Alabama while attending a church service.

I first learned of this incident in 7th grade. We learned about the historic tragedy while reading a book called “The Watsons’ Go to Birmingham”. A black family from Michigan was traveling down to the south to leave their unruly, teenaged son with a relative to straighten out his behavior. For most of my youth, in school, when we discussed racial incidents it was obvious I was the only one whom could relate. Being one of like four black kids in my class, every time the word nigger popped up in the text, classmates looked at me like I was actually there. Nonetheless, I knew the significance of black history, but played it down for my classmates. I was too young to understand the significance of this event. Yet I don’t know what it will take, even after murders like these, to show people racism has no boundaries.

 Three teenage girls and a pre-pubescent girl were murdered by a bomb, planted by KKK members, in a church. Do I believe those men meant to harm four young girls? I can’t answer that question honest, but mostly because I don’t think it matters. I believe those men were out to harm anyone with black skin. Whom these girls could have been is just the unknown now, besides the victims of a domestic terror attack. I mean literally, the girls could have done anything or been anyone. Of course young people pass every day, however, some young people don’t have the privilege to be seen as young. They’re marked by darker skin which has no age.

 As for the killers, one man died before ever being convicted. Two men died in prison while serving life counts. The last man remains in prison serving a life sentence. Most recently in 2016, he was denied parole after having asked to die a free man. There are a couple of monuments that honor the lives of Denise, Addie Mae, Carole, and Cynthia. The statues mostly seek to embody what would have been for the girls. Below is the Four Spirits statue in Birmingham, Alabama.

To America they’re martyrs, today The Wilde recognizes them as four young girls whose deaths were based solely on their color. It’s 2017 and sadly people are still losing their lives based on color. Happy Black History Month!

Namaste,

Brie Wilde

Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley