WASHINGTON, D.C. - Relatives of all four girls who perished in the 1963 bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church are gathered at the U.S. Capitol this afternoon and will sit on the platform at Statuary Hall to accept the Congressional Gold Medal.

Congressional leaders and dignitaries will join the families for a ceremony that will memorialize 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, who died 50 years ago this week in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

Among family members is Sarah Collins Rudolph, the "Fifth Little Girl," and the sister of Addie Mae Collins.

[Watch the ceremony live here]



Rudolph is the closest witness and the long-suffering victim of the blast. She was in the bathroom with the four girls and critically injured in blast that killed her sister and the three other girls.

Rudolph was in the bathroom downstairs at the church with the other four girls that Sunday morning. She remembers Denise asking Addie to tie the sash on her dress. Then, the explosion.

Rudolph, just 12 at the time, lost an eye in the blast and was hospitalized for weeks. She missed her own sister's funeral.

"The city does not know I was the fifth girl in the bathroom that day," Rudolph said in an earlier interview. "I would have lost my life, too, if it hadn't been for God."

Rudolph is in Washington with her husband, George. Her appearance is a surprise and represents a changed position for Rudolph who previously said she would not attend the ceremony or accept the national honor.

"I had to be here to represent Addie," she said this afternoon to AL.com/The Birmingham News on the way to the Capitol today.

Included on the platform are Rudolph, Chris and Maxine McNair, parents of Denise McNair; Diane Braddock, sister of Carole Robertson, Sarah Collins Rudolph, Fate Morris, brother of Cynthia Morris Wesley.

Morris' participation was also a surprise. Like Rudolph, Morris previously rejected participation in the ceremony.

Several Birmingham city leaders, including Mayor William Bell and a majority of City Council members, will join attend the ceremony.

The medal is the result of bipartisan efforts from U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, and Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills. The resolutions eventually passed unanimously in the House and Senate.

Council members Steven Hoyt, Kim Rafferty, Lashunda Scales, Jay Roberson and Johnathan Austin are all set to attend the ceremony.

National outrage over the church's bombing and deaths of the girls who were attending Sunday school contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights of 1965.

Bell and others, including relatives of the bombing victims, were in the Oval Office in May as President Obama signed the legislation authorizing the medal.

Sunday marks 50 years since the bombing.

Rudolph's family left Sixteenth Street following the bombing, no longer able to sit there comfortably.

She's been back before for ceremonies, though, and has said she would return again this year.

"I want to come to the church to be there for Addie and be there because she was our sister and we need to represent her," she said previously.

LIVE UPDATES

2:10 p.m. -- The event is just beginning. House Speaker walks to the podium now.

"It was three weeks to to the day from the March on Washington. Martin Luther King was there. He was not there to sermonize. He was there there to eulogize."

"This is one of the true American stories."

2:12 p.m. -- House Speaker talks about the prestige of the Congressional Gold Medal.

Recognizes the Birmingham guests."We're humbled to be joined here by the families of the honorees." Says the medals are a testament to them as well. They stand and are given applause.

2:17 p.m. -- There's a full house in Statuary Hall as the crowd is watched over by the likenesses of American heroes and figures from times gone by. Each state is allowed two statues. Alabama's latest statue is of Helen Keller, who was installed a few years ago.

2:20 p.m. -- Rep. Terri Sewell speaking now. It was Sewell, D-Birmingham, and Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, who sponsored the medal resolution in the House. Sen. Richard Shelby sponsored in the Senate and is also on the podium.

"Today, 50 years later, we remain silent no more," Sewell said. "The American people through its representatives will bestow the highest civlilian honor that Congress can bestow...God is good."

Sewell notes the Rosa Parks statue is also in the hall.

Sewell asked Sarah Collins Rudolph to stand and be recognized. "This nation honors you as well today."

2:27 p.m. -- This is a bipartisan event as both House Speaker John Boehner (R) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) both sit on the podium alongside Sewell and Bachus.

2:30 p.m. --

Sewell recalled sharing the House floor with Spencer Bachus to talk about their joint resolution to bestow the medals. She also thanked Sen. Shelby for taking on the bill on the upper chamber. She also lauds the bipartisan support.

2:32 p.m.

-- Tweets being sent from the Capitol from several in audience, Birmingham City Councilors Johnathan Austin and Jay Roberson, and U.S. Rep. Martha Roby (R-Montgomery).

2:33 p.m. -- Rep. Spencer Bachus taking the stage now.

2:34 p.m. -- Bachus also notes the Rosa Parks statue in the hall. "They join her in history."

He also praised the nonviolent philosophy of the movement. "Standing up and fighting and going to jail, but not resorting to violence ... that is a legacy we ought to thank everyone who participated in this movement."

2:37 p.m. -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor now at the podium. Cantor also visited Alabama on a civil rights pilgrimage.

2:39 p.m. -- Cantor called the bombers the "enemies of justice." "It was the memories of the children that strengthened and emboldened leaders...as they marched for equality, the demonstrated to the world that they would not forget the four little girls who were taken that day and they would not be intimidated."

2:41 p.m.

-- Sen. Richard Shelby recalls the day 50 years ago when the bomb killed the children. "We knew then that it was a shameful act, a tragic day. We couldn't believe it happened, but it did. And it awakened a conscience, not only for Alabama but for a nation."

Shelby personally addressed the family, saying he is sorry when happened and that it took so long to recognized the girls, but was glad that it was happening now.

2:49 p.m. -- Barbara Ann Mikulski, the senior United States Senator from Maryland, said the bombing showed the nation, including white people, that the issue of civil rights affected everyone.

2:53 p.m. -- The gold medal appears to show the image of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on one side and names of the four girls along with the likenesses of four young women on the other.

3 p.m. -- Rep. Nancy Pelosi talking about her impressions of the era. She also talked about her visit to civil rights sites in Montgomery and plans to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. BCRI director Lawrence Pijeaux is in the audience.

She noted the ages of the medal honorees and the fact that each person died so young.

3:07 p.m. -- U.S. Sen Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, is now speaking. McConnell represents Kentucky, but was actually born in Sheffield, in the Shoals of Northwest Alabama.

3:09 p.m. -- McConnell delivered a message to the families:

"The lives of these children meant something to the history of this country."

"We are forever indebted, and I hope this highest civilian honor we present today will serve as a reminder of our enduring gratitude."

3:11 p.m. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid following McConnell.

3:13 p.m. -- It cannot be understated how significant it is that figures from both parties, in both houses of Congress, are represented this afternoon.

Reid said it is rare that there is agreement in Congress, but on this matter it wasn't hard to find common ground.

3:14 p.m. -- House Speaker John Boehner:

"Some would call it closure. Some would call it a ceremony. I would just call it love. May we serve their memory with love and honor."

Medals about to be presented.

BCRI director Lawrence Pijeaux is giving remarks after the medal presentation.

Gives a plug to the institute by giving the BCRI website and thanking Pelosi for referencing the group in her remarks.

Pijeaux, recognizes the family as well. "On their behalf, I plan to treasure this gold medal. To care for this along with the lives it represents."

3:26 p.m. -- Ceremony concludes.