Preschoolers at the Addie Mae Collins Community Service Center presented flowers to a very special visitor.

Sarah Collins Rudolph is the sister of Addie Mae Collins, one of the four little girls murdered in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 after a racist bombing at the 16th St. Baptist Church.

What You Need To Know

  • Sarah Collins Rudolph narrowly escaped death in 1963 when the KKK bombed a church in Alabama, killing for a little girls -- one of them her sister

  • Rudolph spent the day in New York City visiting a Harlem preschool named for her sister

  • During her visit to the city, Rudolph also met with the mayor at City Hall. She received a citation from Harlem Assemblyman Al Taylor

The visit marked her first visit to the center in East Harlem named for her 14-year-old sister.

After receiving a citation from Harlem Assemblyman Al Taylor, Rudolph recalled her own brush with death on that awful Sunday morning. She’s known as the “fifth” little girl.

“I heard this loud noise — boom — and all I could do was call, I said, ‘Jesus, Addie Addie,’ and she didn’t answer and I heard someone outside say, ‘Somebody bombed the church,’” Wallace said.

That bombing by the Ku Klux Klan also killed two 14-year-olds: Corole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. Denise McNair was 11.

Sarah Collins Rudolph admitted recent racist-inspired massacres in Buffalo and other cities bring back haunting memories.

“Sometimes I just sit back and cry to think how things haven’t changed since the killing of these girls, the same thing going on over and over again and it really hurts me,” Rudolph said.

But she’s soldiering on, and donating a special book about her life to this preschool.

“Addie Mae’s mother gave us the right to use her name,” said Judy Edwards, the board president of Addie Mae Collins Community Service Center. “And we’ve done our best for them to be proud of us.”