Birmingham, 1963

A Jane Addams Children’s Honor Book

Written by Children’s Literature Legacy Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford, this poetic tribute to the victims of the racially motivated church bombing that served as a seminal event in the struggle for civil rights is a book that captures the heartbreak of that day, as seen through the eyes of a fictional witness.

In 1963, the eyes of the world were on Birmingham, Alabama, a flashpoint for the civil rights movement. Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Civil rights demonstrators were met with police dogs and water cannons. On Sunday, September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan planted sticks of dynamite at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which served as a meeting place for civil rights organizers. The explosion killed four little girls. Their murders shocked the nation and turned the tide in the struggle for equality. Poignant text written in free verse pairs with archival photographs in this powerful memorial to the young victims.