The city of Birmingham says more than 100 companies, churches and other groups have signed on to sponsor an event coinciding with the 50th anniversary of a church bombing that killed four black girls.
The city's "Empowerment Week" is scheduled for Sept. 11-15, and groups have pledged more than $1 million to make it happen.
The event will include a citywide day of service and panel discussions on the city's progress in the last half-century.
A Ku Klux Klan bomb went off at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963 as the city's schools were racially integrated for the first time. The blast killed four black girls and critically injured a fifth.
The city says more than 60 churches are among the sponsors of the commemoration.
