I can still see that moment, 63 years later
One day of 1963 that stands out for me is the moment I heard that 4 girls were blown up in the 16th Street Baptist Church. I knew one of them. We attended the Friendship and Action events together – in a group formed to bring together Black and white families in spite of Jim Crow segregation.
I can still see that moment, 63 years later. I was standing in front of our dining room table, staring out the window into our backyard. This was the table I slept under with a pillow on top of me so that if any of the bomb threats my family was receiving actually materialized, I wouldn’t be impaled by the glass from that window.
I live with survivor’s guilt. I no longer try to push it away. I just live with it, understand it, befriend it. I know deep, deep in my heart that all I wanted, as a 15 year old, was to be just like everyone else in my school. Think about that for a moment. I’m White and my deeply buried desires were to be just like all the other White kids at my school. That takes some hard work to befriend.
Today, I am discovering that all the skills I learned, and didn’t even know I had learned, are coming to my aid as we face a new tyrant.
In early 2025, Carolyn Fuller wrote this story for Kids in Birmingham 1963. You may see more information about her at Bending the Arc, at this link and may view a brief video recording of her recollections of growing up in an activist white family in Birmingham, here.