Rapp on Jazz: Coltrane's 'Alabama'

Published December 11, 2025 at 6:07 AM EST

A state trooper and two plainclothes men stand guard at a roadblock at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sept. 16, 1963. The area was sealed off to all, but officers and the FBI are investigating the bombing which killed four African American children. The blast went off inside the basement door at far right. (AP Photo)

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Mark Rapp, and this is Rapp on Jazz.

In 1963, the nation was shaken by the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The attack, carried out by white supremacists, killed four young African American girls and became a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement.

John Coltrane responded not with words, but with music. His composition Alabama is a haunting, elegiac work that captures the grief and quiet strength of a community in mourning.

Coltrane based the cadence of his melody on a speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., transforming spoken lament into instrumental prayer.

With restrained intensity, Alabama voices collective sorrow while offering a sense of resilience and dignity.

It is where jazz becomes a vehicle for both remembrance and hope.

This has been Rapp on Jazz, a co-production of ColaJazz and South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.