‘Fifth little girl’ to share her story at MLK Reflections Breakfast

Author and activist Sarah Collins Rudolph has stated that her “life was spared to tell the story” of the KKK’s bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. The story she tells is a deeply personal one as Rudolph, who was 12 at the time, was one of the 22 people injured in the blast that killed her sister, 14-year-old Addie Mae, and three other girls.
Rudolph, often referred to as the “fifth little girl,” will discuss the terrorist attack and how the Birmingham community came together to fight hate in the aftermath of the bombing during AUM’s 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Reflections Breakfast on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
The free event will begin at 9 a.m. in Taylor Center 221-223. Attendees are asked to register in advance.
Rudolph still carries physical and emotional scars from the church bombing. She lost vision in one of her eyes due to the blast and eventually had to get a glass eye. Three of the victims lost in the blast were eulogized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., at their funeral. While the bombing served as a catalyst for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, justice was not fully served for nearly 40 more years.
From 1977 to 2002, KKK members Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash and Robert Edward Chambliss, were convicted for their roles in the bombings.
Rudolph shared her experiences in “The 5th Little Girl: Soul Survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (The Sarah Collins Rudolph Story),” co-authored by Wright State University Associate Professor Tracy Snipe.