ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Fifty years ago this Sunday, four African-American girls died when the Ku Klux Klan bombed a church in Alabama.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: The explosion at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church was a seminal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. It horrified the nation and helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Today, the girls received one of the nation's highest civilian awards, the Congressional Gold Medal. House Speaker John Boehner led the ceremony.</s>REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: Birmingham had to go through hell but found its way back and pushed itself forward and pushed the whole country forward as well.</s>UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) Don't let your burdens get you down...</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: The four girls were Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, all 14 years old, and Denise McNair, who was 11.</s>UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) I know you could not do...
The four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church will posthumously receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Tuesday.