1963 elicits a wave of memories. It was the year I turned “sweet 16.” Today, as I recall several significant events relating to Civil Rights of that year, I will share the utter isolation and lonely process of managing the aftermath of September 15th.
You see, in August, several weeks before the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church, I accepted placement in the American Friends Service Committee’s program to finish high school in Connecticut.
I was the youth representative for my Sunday School at First Congregational Church on Center Street in Smithfield, 1.8 miles from the bombing. If I had been in Birmingham on September 15th, 1963, I would have been appointed to attend Youth Sunday at 16th Street Baptist Church. Four girls died in that bombing: Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Addie Mae Collins. Of the four, I knew Denise and Carole, and was a close friend of Cynthia. On that Youth Day Sunday it is likely that I would have been in the bathroom with the four girls, chatting, giggling, and “primping” in the mirror, as they were doing when the bomb exploded.