Katherine Ramage, Ph.D., is a national and international research consultant in education. She works to improve educational opportunities for linguistically and racially diverse students and to create equitable education systems that prepare students for participation in democracy. Her father, Edward Vandiver Ramage, D.D., was minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, and was one of the eight white religious leaders characterized in Jonathan Bass’ scholarly book, Blessed are the Peacemakers as the addressees of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail. The events of Birmingham 1963 changed the course of her family’s life as they added a new chapter to the nation’s history. In “Easter Sunday 1963,” she recalls the integration of the First Presbyterian Church. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters.
Daddy asked the session of the church to support his stance that the doors remain open to anyone who wanted to worship within.
On Easter Sunday 1963 my best friend, and “blood sister,” Kathy, and I, with a concealed collection of snacks we had bought on our trip to the drugstore between Sunday school and church, headed up to the balcony as usual. Kathy and I did everything together, and we sat wherever we pleased in church since we were almost twelve.
