Lessons from Birmingham: 60 years after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/14/ [login to see] /16th-street-baptist-church-bombing-60th-anniversary
This city is remembering one of the nation's darkest chapters in civil rights history. On September 15, 1963 the Ku Klux Klan bombed a downtown church, killing four Black girls and rocking the conscience of the nation.

Carolyn McKinstry was the Sunday School secretary at 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 and remembers the day of bombing in vivid detail.

"Our lesson for that Sunday morning was a love that forgives," she recalls. "It was youth Sunday. Everyone was excited about that."

McKinstry, 15 at the time, retraces her footsteps through the church that day, starting in the basement, where Sunday School classes were held. She left early to take the collection upstairs to the church office.