Publisher's Synopsis
On the morning of September 15th, 1963, four excited little girls were gathered in front of the mirror in the ladies' lounge of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, adjusting their dresses and busily preparing for their roles as ushers and choir members at the special 11 a.m. "Youth Day" service. Built in 1911, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was an important meeting place for black community leaders who planned peaceful protests there, and hoped not only to integrate Birmingham but to send a strong message to the rest of the country that blacks and whites deserved equal rights. At 10:22 a.m. on that fateful Sunday, a bomb planted under the front steps of the church by members of the Ku Klux Klan hate group exploded, blowing a seven foot whole in the bathroom wall and instantly killing 11-year-old Denise McNair, and 14-year-olds Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley. This shocking act of violence and tragic loss of innocence in one of the most segregated cities in the United States helped to unite blacks and whites not only in Birmingham, Alabama, but across the entire nation. On the 50th anniversary of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley received the Congressional Gold Medal for their roles as catalysts of change in the struggle for civil rights, and for the sacrifice of four young lives filled with endless promise. This book is aimed at third through fifth grade students. and filled with fascinating historical photos.
