Growing up on Dynamite Hill

L.A. Simmons

L.A. Simmons

Age 10 in 1963

On growing up amid frequent bombings that his parents never discussed with him


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.

Mr. Simmons submitted this original story through KidsInBirmingham1963.org in April 2013.