Survivor of ’63 Alabama church bombing seeks funds

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The lone survivor of a notorious 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four black girls is seeking millions in compensation and says she won't accept a top congressional award to honor the victims...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The lone survivor of a notorious 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four black girls is seeking millions in compensation and says she won’t accept a top congressional award to honor the victims.

Sarah Collins Rudolph tells The Associated Press she feels forgotten 50 years after the Sept. 16, 1963 blast at Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Rudolph lost an eye in the bombing and says she never got restitution.

Congress is considering whether to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Rudolph and four girls who died: 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, and 11-year-old Denise McNair.

The brother of Wesley, Fate Morris, says he’s also not interested in the award, which is Congress’ highest honor.

Juries convicted three Ku Klux Klansmen years later in the bombing.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

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