OU Honors 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing Survivor With Nursing Degree

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI — Oakland University honored a survivor of the 1963 Alabama church bombing in Birmingham with an honorary nursing degree.

Sarah Collins Rudolph was just 12 years old when the bomb went off, killing four little black girls, including Rudolph's sister and injuring several others. She was taken to hospital where she spent more than two months recovering.

Rudolph said her dreams of becoming a nurse became a thing of the past that Sunday when the bomb went off, sending shards of glass that pierced her eyes and leaving her with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Even though I had this problem, God helped me to overcome so much," Rudolph said during her acceptance speech. "I refused to let it take a hold of me and keep me at a standstill."

Although the bombing was a pivotal moment during the Civil Rights Movement, Alabama state officials have neglected her cries for restitution in the attack that traumatized her as a child, she told WXYZ.

"People always say I should have already got restitution because they know what went on in Birmingham," she told the news station.

However, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey did formally apologize to Rudolph on behalf of the state for not doing more to prevent the bombing.

Rudolph's story was highlighted by filmmaker Spike Lee and in the book "The Fifth Little Girl" by author Tracy David Snipe.

Federal officials determined the Klu Klux Klan, a white supremacy terrorist group was responsible for the bombing in Birmingham. Officials identified four suspects in connection to the bombing and ultimately arrested three of them. All three were sentenced to life in prison. The fourth suspect died in the 1990s, officials said.