The Urdd forging link with US city

THE Urdd is planning to cement a unique partnership between Wales and an American city that suffered a racist terrorist attack nearly 50 years ago.

In September, Sian Lewis, the Urdd’s chief executive, will travel to Birmingham, Alabama, with a gift for the 16th Street Baptist Church, where four young black girls died as a result of a bomb attack by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1963.

Described by civil rights leader Martin Luther King as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity”, the explosion also caused non-fatal injuries to 22 members of the congregation.

A member of the Ku Klux Klan was convicted in 1977 of murdering one of the girls, but it wasn’t until 2001 and 2002 that two more perpetrators were convicted of all four murders.

A fourth suspect died in 1984 and was never charged.

At the time of the bombing, people from across Wales contributed to the cost of a stainedglass window depicting a black Christ designed by John Petts, an artist who lived in Llansteffan and Abergavenny.

The church is still functioning today, and during her visit to Birmingham Ms Lewis will be meeting religious and community leaders to reinforce the city’s link with Wales.

She said: “The gift of the stained-glass window after an appeal in the Western Mail, which raised its cost in just a few days, was a wonderful example of the way people in Wales show international solidarity.

“We want to show how the Urdd – which currently has 70,000 young people affiliated to it and has had four million members since it was founded in 1922 – is an outward-looking organisation with a global vision.”

Ms Lewis said she would propose a youth exchange programme involving Wales and Birmingham under which young people would visit each other in groups to learn about their respective cultures and histories.