The Wales Window of Alabama
In 1963, racist bombers blew up the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama, killing four girls in the blast. The murder of children marked another low in the violent resistance to civil rights.
The Welsh sculptor John Petts heard about it on the radio, as he worked in his studio and wanted to help. With money raised Petts was commissioned to make a new stained glass window for the Church depicting a black man, arms outstretched, reminiscent of the crucifixion.
Gary Younge travels to Birmingham Alabama to see the window and how it has become a focus of worship, becoming one of the most famous pieces of art to come out of the darkness of the civil rights period.
