What happens to the Black girls who are haunted by traumatic experiences every day, the ones who often don’t have their stories told, nor the support they need to help pull them through?
Say their names: Addie Mae Collins. Cynthia Wesley. Carole Robertson. Carol Denise McNair.
On September 15th, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, 4 little Black girls attending Sunday service at 16th Street Baptist Church lost their lives after members from the Ku Klux Klan planted a bomb to disrupt worship, and to drive a stake in the movement for civil rights at that time. But, as many people may not know, there was a fifth Black Girl, Sarah Collins, who was blinded by the blast but survived. The trauma she experienced that day and for years after, reminds me of the many Black girls who are haunted by traumatic experiences every day and who often don’t have their stories told or the support they need to help pull them through.
It’s time we shift that narrative.
Featured Image, Flip Schulke/CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images
Full article @ Essence