I grew up in Birmingham, attending the same schools and living in the same neighborhood as Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, the four little girls killed on September 15, 1963. Their murders broke something inside me. I vowed that if I ever met the man who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, I would kill him myself.
I later left Alabama after a terrifying encounter with a white police officer who threatened my life without cause.
God had other plans for me. In 1978, Alabama Gov. George Wallace appointed me as the first Black chaplain in the Alabama Department of Corrections. In 1985, I came face-to-face with the man I once vowed to kill: Robert Edward Chambliss. However, I wasn’t there for vengeance; I was there to pray with him. The Holy Spirit called me to put down the weapons I had carried in my soul.
When I walked in, Chambliss said, “I didn’t kill those girls.” I told him maybe a falling beam killed them when the bomb exploded, but he set the bomb. I told him he needed to repent. I spoke the words of the Sinner’s Prayer, and he repeated them, speaking his penitence out loud. I received that confession as a servant of the Lord and never saw him again.
That moment taught me about justice, truth, and redemption. God allowed me to release decades of rage. It is that lesson that leads me to write these words today.
For more than 50 years, I have brought faith to men behind Alabama’s prison walls. Over those years, I came to know Robin “Rocky” Myers. During his 31 years on death row, we prayed together and shared many meals.
In December 1991, Ludie Mae Tucker was stabbed to death in her Decatur, Alabama, home. Three years later, a nearly all-white jury found Myers guilty. The evidence was flimsy: Witness accounts conflicted, and no murder weapon or DNA connected him to the crime. One witness has since recanted under oath; evidence shows another was offered a deal for testimony. Recognizing these deep questions, Governor Kay Ivey commuted Myers’s sentence to life in prison in February 2025. A petition pending in Morgan County now asks a judge to vacate his sentence entirely.
It looks to me that Myers is not guilty. If I am right, he deserves more than clemency. He deserves freedom.
This brings me back to Robert Chambliss, and why Rocky Myers’s trial troubles me so deeply.
Myers was represented by John Mays, a lawyer with deep, documented ties to the United Klans of America (Ku Klux Klan; KKK). For years, Mays spoke at Klan rallies and cross burnings, and served as the organization’s corporate counsel. After Chambliss was convicted of the church bombing, Mays even held a press conference declaring him innocent.
But I know the truth. Chambliss repented after I confronted him about his responsibility for those children’s deaths. He asked for God’s forgiveness.
Think about what that means. A poor Black man with intellectual limitations was forced to rely on a defense attorney who openly aligned himself with a terrorist organization best known for murderous violence against people who looked like his client. That is a moral crisis.
I say this as a pastor who grew up hearing the names Addie Mae, Denise, Carole, and Cynthia spoken the way you speak of the dead you love. Our community knows what it costs when hatred hides behind the law. We paid for that knowledge in the blood of children.
Scripture tells us that justice must roll down like waters. By that standard, what happened to Rocky Myers falls grievously short. At 85 years old, I know Alabama can do better. Rocky Myers deserves a fair trial. He has never had one.
For more information about Rocky Myers, visit www.justice4rockymyers.com.
In 1978, Chaplain Curtis Browder was appointed by Gov. George C. Wallace as Alabama’s first Black prison chaplain. He still ministers to incarcerated men and women across the state. His ministry was featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary “The Alabama Solution.”
Thanks very, very-much for these news, but I was this poor-black-man, I WON’T bother hiring this lawyer-May whom had several-links with the United-Klans Of America( KKK) and also this white-neighbour whom hired a KKK-hitman to murder his African-American-neighbour in Alabama, USA too. Here WE GO AGAIN. Despite, Reverend, Dr Martin Luther-King, Jr’s-Famous; I HAVE A DREAM-SPEECH on 28th-August-1964 at the Lincoln-Memorial in Washington, DC, the Ku Klux-Klan are STILL MURDERING African-Americans. NO, I WON’T FORGIVE AND FORGET; the Ku Klux-Klan KILLED blacks and so blacks KILL white-Americans; title for tattoo. Dr Martin Luther-King, Jr himself was a man Of God-Almighty and his assassin; a white-supremacist AND used 1 .30-06-bullet AND KILLED Dr Martin Luther-King,Jr just after 6pm; American-time on 4th-April-1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. That bullet; .30-06-bullet was also the same-bullet that KILLED Big-Brother-Medgar Evers just after midnight on 12th-June-1963 in Jackson, Mississippi and his assassin( Byron De La-Beckwith) was a member of the Ku Klux-Klan too. That man whom SHOT AND KILLED Reverend, Dr Martin Luther-King, Jr on 4th-April-1968 in Memphis, Tennessee was also a member of the Ku Klux-Klan too. Sorry to hear that this African-American-brother and whom was unarmed and was almost shot and killed by a white-policeman in Alabama and this very-frightening-experience forced him to LEAVE Alabama for GOOD. Thank GOD-ALMIGHTY that he was with this African-Americans, but this turn-the-other-cheek; we blacks preached to others has GOT to END. We Blacks preached turn-the-other-cheek and whites, Asians and Jews and Other -races are STILL shooting AND killing unarmed-black-men and black-women. We Blacks SHOULD FIGHT-BACK; FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE; buy and take-up arms and rifles and after after’all the Second-Amendment to the U.S-Constitution the RIGHT to OWN AND BEAR arms and so black-men AND black-women SHOULD take-up arms and rifles and USE them in self-defence when their lives ARE VERY-SEVERELY-THREATENED too. I would if I was residing in USA right-NOW, I WANTED the RIGHT to OWN AND BEAR arms and rifles for self-defence when I’m shot-at by white-supremacists; the Ku Klux-Klan and by rogue and racist-cops. I’m VERY; VERY AND VERY-SICK of hearing and reading about how-many unarmed-black-men and unarmed-black-women have been shot-dead by police-officers in USA; that with U.S-Police; it IS STILL SHOOT FIRST, THEN ASK QUESTIONS by police-officers on New-York-City; in California; in Chicago; in Alabama; in Washington, DC; in Mississippi AND in EVERY-State AND EVERY-city AND EVERY-small-town inside the United States Of-America right-NOW too African-Americans NOW-MADE-UP 14.30% Of USA and 7.0% Of U.K and during slaveries, African-slaves helped, built and founded both the United-Kingdom and the United-States Of-America-PERIOD; fought, bled and died in EVERY-WAR both America and Britain has been engaged-in from Fighting Native-Americans to the English-Civil-Wars to America’s-War Of Independence to the Second-World-War to the Falklands-Wars to the Iran-Iraq-Wars and up TILL now and even the Crimean-Wars when Jamaican-born-nurse-Mary Seacole and white-English-Rose-nurse-Florence Nightingale nursed thousands of injured British; French; Russian and Crimean-soldiers during the Crimean-Wars too. Also, the Windrush-Scandals began on 22nd-June-1948 on that ship-The Windrush; bringing-in hundreds of African-Caribbeans from Jamaica and the rest of The-Caribbean and Brazil, South-America to help rebuild England and the United-Kingdom after the Second-World-War; filled English-job-markets and did several-jobs; the white-majorities didn’t want to do here in England and Wales and in the rest of UK after that ship-The Windrush docked at Tilbury, Essex, England, U.K with hundreds of Africans and African-Caribbeans from Jamaica; the-Caribbean and Brazil on 22nd-June-1948 after the United-Kingdom defeated Nazi-Germany and WON the Second-World-War on 8th-May-1945 too. Like the United States Of-America; Africans have been here in England; long; long and long-before America’s-War Of Independence and during slaveries, Africans helped, built and founded Greater-London; England; Wales and the rest of the United-Kingdom and whom NOW-MADE-UP 7.0% Of the United-Kingdom-Electorate and fought, bled and died in EVERY-WAR, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland has been engaged-in up till now too. YES, Africans helped, built and founded England and the United-Kingdom as a whole and during slaveries too, Africans he helped, built and founded the United States Of-America since Africans arrived in North-America in 1600; brought to North-America by the English; the Spanish and by the French by force from Mother-Africa and brought to North-America as slaves and millions of Africans died in transit; drowned in the oceans; the Atlantic-Ocean and the Caribbean-Sea after being thrown overboard these slave-ships during the TransAtlantic-Slave-Trades too; bringing Africans as slaves to North-America; Jamaica and the-Caribbean; to Brazil, Central and South-America and to Canada and to the Indian-Sub-Continent and to Australia, New-Zealand and Oceania too during these slave-trades too. In North-America; African-slaves ; helped, built and founded Greater-Los Angeles, Chicago, New-York-City, Washington, DC, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas( remembering 19th-June-1865 in Texas), Florida, the Golden-West, New-Jersey, Michigan and the rest of America’s-Deep-South and the rest of USA as a whole and helped founded Greater-San-Francisco; San-Diego and several-more-cities and small-towns in California before California joined the United States Of-America as her 31st-State in 1850 and after California joined the U.S.A in 1850. Also, Los Angeles was founded by 44-Founding-Fathers and Mothers; 26/44 were Africans before California joined the U.S in 1850 too. YES, Africans helped, built and founded the United States Of-America too. The United States Of-America was founded on the genocides of Native-Americans; the So-Called-Red-Indians and the enslavements of Africans from Mother-Africa too. Therefore with these home-truths, blacks in USA SHOULD hang-in there and FIGHT-BACK for what are THEIRS and be very, very, very-sensible with their next-ballot-papers too at the next-American-general and local-elections too. Here in the United-Kingdom, I VOTED NONE OF THE-ABOVE; I VOTED INDEPENDENT AND I VOTED for myself TOO on 7th-May-2026 TOO. Thanking you’all for an early-reply too. May God-Almighty bless you’all my African and African-American-brothers and sisters allover the United States Of-America right-NOW too.
Yours faithfully.
Thanks very, very-much for recognising my comments too.
Yours faithfully.
Repented? These people, if they are people are the Greatest Con Artists of All Time. Said the prayer and repented out loud? Are you …?