57 pages • 1 hour read
As McKinstry walked into the sanctuary on September 15, 1963, she heard a loud boom and felt the building shake. At first, she mistook the sound for thunder. The Ku Klux Klan often detonated bombs in Birmingham, but it didn’t sound like any of the bombs that McKinstry had heard before. Glass shattered, and someone shouted to McKinstry to get on the ground. She crouched down, afraid, as silence filled the church. After 10 seconds, she heard feet below her as people rushed to vacate the church’s basement. McKinstry ran outside to see the church surrounded by police cars. There was chaos and confusion as people searched for their loved ones, and McKinstry tried to understand how a bomb could have detonated in the “safe haven” of her church. Looking up, McKinstry saw that the stained-glass window in the front of the church was still intact, except for the face of Jesus, which had been “cleanly blown away.”
Black people from around the neighborhood gathered and shouted angrily, demanding that someone pay for the violence. Suddenly, McKinstry remembered her brothers in the basement for their Sunday school classes. She rushed inside to search for them, pausing in front of the women’s bathroom, which was reduced to a pile of rubble.
Plus, gain access to 8,550+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
African American Literature
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Civil Rights & Jim Crow
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Equality
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Forgiveness
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Guilt
View Collection
Hate & Anger
View Collection
Inspiring Biographies
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection