'Mean' Birmingham Recalled by Author in Suwanee

The question came from a school-age child. In fact, the questioner was not much younger than Carolyn Maull McKinstry was in 1963 when a famous African-American church in Birmingham, Ala., was bombed.

"How long (was it that McKinstry) got away from being killed?" came the question Thursday (Jan. 26) in Suwanee.

"I had a window of two minutes or less," McKinstry answered. "If I had decided to comb my hair, someone else would be telling this story."

The well-known author and civil rights activist brought her memories of that iconic event, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement to the Gwinnett County Public Library in Suwanee. The event was to promote her new book on the bombing, "While The World Watched."

Four children died in that bombing, which came during one of the most intense periods of the civil rights movement in the South.

McKinstry's speech and book also told of "tanks, dogs and water hoses" that were used on unarmed marchers in Birmingham. Also, she recalled details of the segregation that was the law in Birmingham in that era.

But why now for the book? As the 50th anniversary nears of the bombing, she said, "I wanted (family) to have a historical account." Also, she said, "I began to see things in the U.S. that were frighteningly reminiscent of things I remembered in the 1960s. ... I thought we needed a history lesson."

And the history of Birmingham then is of segregation. McKinstry also read from a document that contained segregation laws of that era: separate entrances at restaurants for whites and blacks, petitions 7 feet high in restaurants to separate black and white customers. "There was a law for everything," she said.

The day of the bombing was Youth Day at the church, McKinstry, then 14, recalled. The sermon was "A Love That Forgives." Inside the church, she answered the phone. The caller simply said, "Three minutes." She then ran into the sanctuary, looking for her two younger brothers. "That's when the bomb exploded," she recalled.

The bombers were "the most supreme murderers and cowards the world has ever seen," she said. 

She said that though she and family survived the bombing, a form of depression stayed with her for almost 20 years after. "I was convinced I would die from a bombing," she said. "This is how it would happen."

Since then, much of her life has been devoted to speeches and broadcast works on civil rights; her credits include CNN, HBO and Oprah Winfrey. "All of us have the opportunity to make a difference."

"We are very preoccupied with race in this country," McKinstry said. "I'm not sure why. ... It's not about color. It's how we treat each other."