This scene, depicted in the film Selma, is a creative reimagining of the Birmingham church bombing of 15 September 1963 by Ku Klux Klansmen. The 16th Street Baptist church has become a key site in the architecture of the civil rights movement.
Eyewitness News on 23 June 2015
Young black girls in dresses, hats, and gloves hurry down the stairs. Their Sunday best traces random patterns in the wake of their steps. Chatter on Coretta Scott-King’s hair populates the air with childlike carefreeness. Suddenly, stairs, walls, ceilings and floor, burst into a bitter cloud of wood, dust, brick and bodies. An explosion that will echo through time.
