Born in Danger

The Black girls who died in Alabama didn’t know me, but they forever impacted my life

Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins and Cynthia Wesley died in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. Their murders galvanized the Civil Rights Movement, and my mother pinned their photos to my shirt when we marched.

“Can’t you see she’s scared?” my great-grandmother got right in my mother’s face and yelled. “Leave her here with me!” Nana grabbed my six-year-old elbow and pulled hard, dragging me into her room with the fragrant snuffbox, the bottle of Canadian Club, and Jack Brickhouse shouting “Hey! Hey!”…