Overlooked victims of 1963 violence to be honored in Birmingham: ‘We need to remember’

As the 62nd anniversary of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing approaches, a group of Birmingham residents and historians want to ensure that two young men killed in racial violence that day are remembered.

Virgil Ware, a 13-year-old Black boy was shot and killed on Sept 15, 1963 while riding on the handlebars of his brother’s bicycle. The boys were in Docena, an unincorporated community just outside Birmingham. The two white male youths involved in the shooting never served time for their actions.

That same day, 16-year-old Johnnie Robinson was shot by police during a racially charged incident downtown after the bombing.

The newly created Virgil L. Ware Institute and Lecture Series was formed to preserve the memory of Ware and Robinson.

While the victims of the church bombing