The four girls killed in the bombing (Clockwise from top left, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Jonathan P. Hicks

It has been nearly 50 years since four young Black girls were killed in a bombing in a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama at the height of the civil rights movement. And to commemorate that horrific episode, the House of Representatives voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to 11-year-old Denise McNair and Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, each of them 14.

It was a moment of all-too-rare bipartisan action in Congress, where the measure was cosponsored by two members of the Alabama delegation: Terri Sewell, a Democrat, and Spencer Bachus, a Republican. They had been working actively for the House to confer the honor on the four girls for much of this year.

This congressional honor has a deeper meaning in a contemporary American landscape. The House of Representative voted on the measure less than two weeks after the attacks that killed three people and injured nearly 200 more during the Boston Marathon. And it should serve as a reminder that what Americans now call terrorism is hardly a new phenomenon in our country.

Read More Commentary: Congress Honors Four Little Black Girls and American Resolve | News | BET.