While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement

Carolyn Maull McKinstry's memoir While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement (2011) describes the author’s experiences growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, during the 1950s and 1960s. At 14 years old, McKinstry survived the racially motivated bombing of Sixteen Street Baptist Church. Four of McKinstry’s friends were killed in the explosion, and the trauma of the experience haunted her into adulthood. McKinstry later embraced a peaceful approach to healing centered on teachings from the Bible, and she returned to Birmingham with her husband and children to work in social advocacy. The text explores The Personal Experiences Behind Public Historical Events, The Enduring and Personal Impact of Racial Violence, and The Healing Power of Faith and Forgiveness.

This guide uses the 2011 Tyndale Kindle edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide discuss racism and racial violence, as well as suicidal ideation.

Summary

Carolyn Maull McKinstry was born in Clanton, Alabama, in 1948. McKinstry’s family moved to Birmingham when she was two years old. In the 1950s, Birmingham was governed by strict Jim Crow laws mandating segregation. Black people who broke Jim Crow laws and crossed the “color line” risked losing their jobs and property, as well as being subject to racial violence. As a child, McKinstry was largely sheltered from the racial violence and discrimination that plagued Birmingham. McKinstry’s parents kept the children close to home, and her father held strict rules.

McKinstry and her family were members of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. In contrast to the atmosphere of violence and uncertainty that permeated Birmingham, the church was a haven where McKinstry was independent and held responsibility: Even her protective father didn’t worry about her safety at church. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was also an important hub for the civil rights movement, and Black leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., met there to plan marches and demonstrations. McKinstry was “right in the center” of the budding civil rights movement (107). At 14 years old, she heard King speak at Sixteenth Street Baptist and was immediately captivated by his charisma and non-violent ideology. McKinstry marched with King and thousands of other students in the Birmingham Children’s March, where she and the other demonstrators were blasted with powerful fire hoses.

On September 15, 1963, McKinstry headed to church with her two little brothers. She worked as the church secretary and was tasked with gathering and reading the Sunday school report before the sermon began. As she gathered the reports, she stopped in the women’s bathroom, where four friends—Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair—were primping before the service. McKinstry said a quick hello to the girls and hurried back upstairs. Just moments later, as McKinstry entered the church’s sanctuary, a bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan detonated. In the chaos that ensued, McKinstry’s father found her and her brothers and took them home. Later that day, she learned that the bomb had gone off in the women’s bathroom, and her four friends were dead.

McKinstry fell into a deep depression after the bombing. She had no access to counseling or trauma-resolution services. She didn’t fully understand that her sadness and fixation with death was due to the loss of her friends. This “dark cloud” followed her for years. In college, McKinstry began drinking heavily to numb the pain, a habit that continued even after she married and started a family. McKinstry’s husband was loving and supportive, but she still didn’t feel like she could share her depression and the lingering memories of the bombing.

One day, McKinstry’s young daughter was almost hit by a car playing outside while McKinstry sat at the kitchen table with a glass of vodka and orange juice. She immediately decided that she would turn her life around, praying to God for the strength to quit drinking. She realized that her lingering anger toward the men who bombed her church led her to self-destruct. With God’s help, she found forgiveness and “ultimate freedom.”

McKinstry and her family moved back to Birmingham, where, in 2002, one of the men responsible for the bombing was finally brought to trial. McKinstry testified in the case of the State of Alabama v. Bobby Frank Cherry, finally facing one of the men who killed her friends. In Birmingham, McKinstry dedicated herself to restoring Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, preserving the memory of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, and traveling the country talking about her experiences. McKinstry hopes her story will illustrate to others “how love can overcome hate, how forgiveness can overcome bitterness, and how joy can overcome pain” (275).