L.A. Simmons

L.A. Simmons

L. A. Simmons grew up in the lovely African American Birmingham neighborhood dubbed “Dynamite Hill” for the rash of bombings in the 1950s and 1960s. Today he lives in Fairfield, AL, and works at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Growing up on Dynamite Hill

I grew up in the College Hills neighborhood (commonly known as “dynamite hill” for the rash of bombings in the 1950s and 60s). Attorney Arthur Shores lived three blocks from me on Center Street. Our home would shake every time a bomb exploded in the neighborhood. One night a window broke in our home. My friends and I would walk through the neighborhood the next day to see whose home was hit. My parents never discussed the bombings. I remember one Sunday a bomb was found outside the church on Center Street (Queen of the Universe). Two of my childhood friends were in Sixteenth Street Baptist Church when it was bombed (Dale & Ken). I remember my father, brother and I driving by the church a couple of weeks later and seeing the destruction, still vivid to me.