Diane Smith Grych

Diane Smith Grych

Diane Smith Grych, the daughter of John H. and Alwilda C. Smith, was born and raised (4th generation) in Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated from Ullman High School, Class of 1969. She now resides in Princeton, WV, and is Assistant Professor of Education at Concord University, Athens, West Virginia. She is married to Edward S. Grych, and is the proud mother of two daughters.

It could have been me

I will never forget the morning of September 15th, 1963. My parents and I were getting ready to go to church when we received the news that Sixteenth Street Baptist Church had been bombed. We immediately tuned in to the radio to find out what happened, and I recall experiencing a mixture of horror, anger, and profound sadness. I could have been one of the girls that was killed. Although I attended a different church, still, it could have been me. . .