Birmingham Church Bombing
Birmingham Church Bombing
“Blast Kills Four Children…”! It was in all the newspapers and everybody was talking about it. The Birmingham Church Bombing may not have been the first bombing over race, but it was the first that killed. This horrible event took the lives of four little girls and injured many more. This bombing demonstrated just how bad racial tensions truly had gotten, especially in Alabama. Michele Norris is one of the great authors that actually wrote about the Birmingham Church Bombing in her book, The Grace of Silence. In this book, Norris explains how things truly were between the races and includes historical events that made the United States the way it is today. One of the most influential events of these was the Birmingham Church Bombing. Before September 15th, 1963 life in the South was harsh if you were colored, more so in Birmingham, Alabama than others. Many people of color were shot during this time and not all were for a just cause. Back then, “The Birmingham Police shot a lot of people, the city was like a shooting gallery” (Norris 71). As if being shot by the police wasn’t enough, colored people also had to worry about the Ku Klux Klan and their malicious ways. But being shot at wasn’t their only problem. Everywhere people went there was segregation. Bathrooms, drinking fountains, schools, theatres, and many other public areas were all segregated. Was it really so bad that a colored person went to the same school as a white person? Segregation was supported by the legal system and the police. For quite some time colored people couldn’t even do anything about it because they had no voice, no right to vote. Finally on January 12th, 1946 members of the Alabama Democratic Executive Committee announced “that ‘qualified negroes’ would be allowed to vote” (Norris 116). Though their voting right was restricted it was a start, and the colored people of Alabama were not about to let it go. But as time went on people all over the country
“Blast Kills Four Children…”! It was in all the newspapers and everybody was talking about it. The Birmingham Church Bombing may not have been the first bombing over race, but it was the first that killed. This horrible event took the lives of four little girls and injured many more. This bombing demonstrated just how bad racial tensions truly had gotten, especially in Alabama. Michele Norris is one of the great authors that actually wrote about the Birmingham Church Bombing in her book, The Grace of Silence. In this book, Norris explains how things truly were between the races and includes historical events that made the United States the way it is today. One of the most influential events of these was the Birmingham Church Bombing. Before September 15th, 1963 life in the South was harsh if you were colored, more so in Birmingham, Alabama than others. Many people of color were shot during this time and not all were for a just cause. Back then, “The Birmingham Police shot a lot of people, the city was like a shooting gallery” (Norris 71). As if being shot by the police wasn’t enough, colored people also had to worry about the Ku Klux Klan and their malicious ways. But being shot at wasn’t their only problem. Everywhere people went there was segregation. Bathrooms, drinking fountains, schools, theatres, and many other public areas were all segregated. Was it really so bad that a colored person went to the same school as a white person? Segregation was supported by the legal system and the police. For quite some time colored people couldn’t even do anything about it because they had no voice, no right to vote. Finally on January 12th, 1946 members of the Alabama Democratic Executive Committee announced “that ‘qualified negroes’ would be allowed to vote” (Norris 116). Though their voting right was restricted it was a start, and the colored people of Alabama were not about to let it go. But as time went on people all over the country