(CNN) - President Barack Obama on Friday awarded posthumous Congressional Gold Medals to four African-American girls killed in a Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing that became a key and tragic moment of the civil rights movement.
Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11, were killed during Sunday services on September 15, 1963, at the 16th Street Baptist Church.