Jack and Jill in Valdosta observes Carole Robertson Day

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - On Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, a bomb exploded at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham killing 11-year-old Denise McNair, 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, 14-year-old Cynthia Wesley, and 14-year-old Carole Robertson.

At the Jack and Jill National Convention, it was decided that all chapters would observe Carole Robertson in September with an activity that would highlight the goals of human and civil rights that she did not live to enjoy.

“In school more than likely I would just read about her but in Jack and Jill I got to be her for a little bit,” Carrie Grace Jordan, Senior Teen Secretary Jack & Jill of Valdosta, said.

Like Jordan, Robertson was a teen member of Jack and Jill.

Robertson faced challenges of racial tensions and segregation, while Jordan faced threats of school bombings and shootings on social media.

“It’s kind of scary to go to school and feel like you don’t know if you’re going to go home to your mom or if that’s the last time you’re going to see your mom...and it’s really hard,” she said.

Jonessa Williams, Jack and Jill of Valdosta president, said this is why the organization educates children on historic events and relates them to modern-day events.

“We want them to know that hatred has been going on for many, many years, and as we embark about this new season with the school systems...walking in having to be fearful to just sit in school and get an education we want them equipped with the knowledge that they don’t go in vain,” Williams said.

Each year the organization awards an outstanding high school graduate in honor of Roberson’s memory and to inspire young people to reach for the best.

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