On September 15, 1963, 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed. In March Book 3, the drawings depict a specific narrative. A woman goes to check on some of the girls during Sunday School as they are hiding in the bathroom to talk. One of the girls is named when the woman returns to her own Sunday School class and tells another woman that her daughter, Denise, is talking with her friends in there. Right after this conversation finishes, the bombing takes place. We then find out that Denise McNair and three other girls died. Three of the girls, including Denise, were 14 years old and the fourth one was 11.

The bombing of this Birmingham church did receive lots of coverage. Many White people were shocked and enraged because of the incident. Over 8,000 people attended the girls’ funeral service. The culprits for this crime weren’t sentenced to anything until many years later. Three out of four of the men did end up in jail for what they did. Robert Chambliss was convicted of the murder of the girls in 1977. Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry were both convicted in the early 2000s. Herman Cash, the fourth bomber, died in 1994 and was never prosecuted for his crimes.

I can’t imagine the heartbreak the friends and family of those girls felt. I go to church regularly and when I’m there I always feel comfortable and safe. So, if my church were bombed, I have no idea how terrifying that would be. If I lost a friend due to such a bombing, I’d be grieving for years. Knowing that those children must’ve been blown up in that explosion is horrifying.

Despite how sickening it was to see a singular shoe, signifying Denise McNair, I’m grateful I got to read it in that format. I have a hard time visualizing thing, and those comic panels made it easier for me to understand the emotions. Even still, however, I cannot imagine how the parents must’ve felt. These are the types of incidents that stick with me the most: the ones about innocent people being suddenly killed because of pure hatred.

Sources:

https://www.nps.gov/articles/16thstreetbaptist.htm

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/baptist-street-church-bombing