This panel seeks to engage the joint funeral service of Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair with specific attention to the eulogy given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the eulogy, Dr. King makes claims concerning the death of the little girls that not only have implications for the faithful in attendance, but also to the student and teacher of Black Religious Studies. These claims range from the girls being "unoffending, innocent, and beautiful" to asserting them as "martyred heroines for a holy crusade of freedom." Regardless of where one stands in relation to such claims, they continue to have immense significance for black study as we live in the wake of not only this bombing but the countless deaths of other black children especially in the last decade. To this end, these scholars will engage the eulogy delivered by Dr. King form their own scholarly vantage points that brings us into critical reflection with not only King’s words, but also this historical moment and its import for black childhood studies, theology, religious history, ethics, critical theory, and black (sacred) space studies.

Ahmad Greene (Harvard Divinity School),Alexis Wells Oghoghomeh (Stanford University), Ambre Dromgoole (Cornell University,Amey Adkins-Jones (Boston College,Biko Mandela Gray (Syracuse University),Nyle Fort(Columbia University)