In Memoriam

James T. Crutcher (1933-2007)

James T. Crutcher, the former pastor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, has died. The church was the site of a September 1963 bombing by the Ku Klux Klan which killed four young black girls, an event that galvanized public support for the civil rights struggle.

Reverend Crutcher served as pastor of the church from 1968 to 1982. He then was appointed chaplain of the hospital at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He was the first African American to hold the position. He served as chaplain at University Hospital for 13 years.

Mikel LaMar Husband (1971-2007)

Mikel LaMar Husband, the director of communications at Howard University, died at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore from an infection resulting from a heart condition. He was 36 years old.

Husband served as an adjunct professor of journalism at Howard and was also an adviser to the student newspaper and yearbook.

A native of California, he graduated from Howard University in 1993. He later earned a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University.