Clawing Through Bits of Glass and Bricks: James Baldwin and Reinhold Niebuhr on the Birmingham Church Bombing

This article analyzes the unpublished dialogue between James Baldwin and Reinhold Niebuhr where they discussed role of Christian church in wake six child murders Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. On that catastrophic day—one is impossible to forget—the Ku Klux Klan bombed The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, two black boys were subsequently shot killed. In violence, this will show for Baldwin, dynamite exploded face “alabaster Christ” from stained-glass window presents an opportunity not only a new depiction Jesus terms presentation—but more significantly—a brand-new Christology rooted liberation. Such reading provides us with unusual constructive theological position offered by especially once it read alongside public essay written Association Artists Freedom advocating Black Christmas.