FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact:
Vicky Lynch
[email protected]
(630) 362-8829
Carolyn Maull McKinstry, Eyewitness to the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing,
Pens Her Never Before Released Memoirs of the Tragedy
That Killed Four Young Friends
[Carol Stream, IL]--Fourteen-year-old Carolyn McKinstry was just a few feet
away when the Klan-planted bomb that killed four of her friends exploded in
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was one of the
seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history,
and the turning point in a young girl’s life.
Tyndale House Publishers Inc., presents While the World Watched by Carolyn
Maull McKinstry with Denise George (ISBN: 978-1-4143-3636-7; Hardcover; 5 ½
x 8 ¼ ; Biography & Autobiography; 300 pages; $17.99), releasing February
2011 in observance of Black History Month.
While the World Watched is a poignant and gripping eyewitness account of
what it was like to grow up in the Jim Crow South—from the bombings, riots, and assassinations to
the historic marches and triumphs that characterized the Civil Rights era.
Discover personal details including:
 Carolyn spoke to her young friends in the bathroom mere minutes before the bombing
 She answered a call at the church that day, not understanding the callers “three minutes” on the
other end of the line
 The Civil Rights Movement from Carolyn’s point of view as a young black girl
 And much more.
Writing her story nearly 50 years later, McKinstry explains, “For nearly five decades now, I have tried to
forget the deaths, the inhumane injustices, the vicious German shepherds, the fierce blast of the water
hoses, and the brutal assassinations of those who spoke out for change. But now, as I see new
generations coming and old generations passing, I feel compelled to write down in permanent ink my
eyewitness account of exactly what happened.”
The book also includes a letter from President Barack Obama written to the Sixteenth Street Bapist
Church for the 45th anniversary of the bombing on September 15, 2008.
While the World Watched is a uniquely moving exploration of how racial relations have evolved over the
past five decades and an incredible testament to how far we’ve come, and how far we have yet to go.
Carolyn is available for national interviews to promote the February 2011 publication of While the
World Watched. Contact Vicky Lynch at [email protected] or at (630) 362-8829 to schedule an
interview or to learn more.
The Civil Rights Movement . . . through the Eyes of Carolyn McKinstry
January 13, 1948: Carolyn Maull McKinstry is born in Clanton, Alabama.
May 17, 1954: Supreme Court bans segregation in schools in the Brown v. Board of
Education decision.
August 28, 1955: Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till is kidnapped and murdered in
Mississippi.
December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white in
Montgomery, Alabama.
December 5, 1955: Montgomery bus boycott begins.
November 13, 1956: Supreme Court affirms ban on segregated seating on Alabama
buses.
December 25, 1956: Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth’s house in Birmingham is bombed.
September 2, 1957: Klan members kidnap and castrate Edward Aaron in Birmingham.
September 24, 1957: The “Little Rock Nine” enter Central High under the protection of
the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
January 20, 1961: John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as president of the United States.
1961: Freedom Rides begin from Washington, D.C., into Southern states.
February 26, 1962: The Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional in all
transportation facilities.
January 14, 1963: Newly elected Alabama governor George C. Wallace takes the oath of
office.
April 12, 1963: Dr. King is arrested and locked up in a Birmingham jail.
May 2–3, 1963: Children’s marches in downtown Birmingham are broken up by police
with attack dogs and fire hoses.
June 11, 1963: Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in the doorway of University
of Alabama to keep Vivian Malone and James Hood from enrolling.
June 12, 1963: Klan member kills Mississippi Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers.
August 28, 1963: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads march on Washington, D.C., with more
than 250,000 people in attendance.
September 15, 1963: A bomb planted at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church explodes and
kills four girls.
September 15, 1963: Virgil Ware, 13, is killed in Birmingham by two white youth; Johnny
Robinson, 16, is killed by police in Birmingham.
September 30, 1963: Police arrest Robert Chambliss, Charles Cagle, and John W. Hall in
conjunction with the Sixteenth Street Church bombing; they are released after each
paying a $100 fine.
November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
July 2, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
October 14, 1964: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for
advocating a policy of nonviolence.
February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated.
March 25, 1965: Martin Luther King Jr. leads thousands of nonviolent crusaders to the
completion of a 54-mile pilgrimage from Selma to Montgomery.
August 6, 1965: President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act outlawing literacy tests
for voting eligibility in the South.
October 2, 1967: Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first black Supreme Court justice.
February 1968: FBI closes its investigation of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
bombing without filing charges.
April 3, 1968: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”
speech in Memphis, Tennessee.
April 4, 1968: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.
June 5, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles, California, and dies 26 hours
later.
1971: Alabama attorney general Bill Baxley reopens 1963 church-bombing investigation.
November 18, 1977: Robert Chambliss is found guilty for the murder of Denise McNair
and sentenced to life in prison.
October 29, 1985: “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss dies in prison.
1988: Alabama attorney general Don Siegelman reopens the church-bombing case
1989: Army general Colin Powell becomes the first black to serve as chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1989: L. Douglas Wilder (Virginia) becomes the first black elected governor.
1993: Birmingham-area black leaders meet with FBI about the church bombing, and
agents secretly begin new review of the case.
February 7, 1994: Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing suspect Herman Frank Cash
dies.
October 27, 1998: Federal grand jury in Alabama begins hearing evidence regarding
church-bombing case.
April 15, 2001: Thomas Blanton Jr. goes on trial for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
bombing.
May 1, 2001: The court finds Blanton, 62, guilty on four counts of first-degree murder.
May 6, 2002: Carolyn testifies in court during Bobby Cherry’s trial.
May 22, 2002: The court finds Cherry, 71, guilty on four counts of murder and sentences
him to life in prison.
November 18, 2004: Bobby Frank Cherry, 74, dies in prison from cancer.
Spring 2007: Carolyn and Dr. Neal Berte raise $4 million for the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church restoration.
November 2008: First African-American, Barack Obama, is elected president of the
United States.
September 15, 2013: The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church will commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the bombing.
Discussion Questions
1. Why have you chosen to write your memoir nearly 50 years after the bombing on
September 15, 1963?
2. How did your parents talk to you and your siblings about the Civil Rights Movement? Did
your parents encourage you to participate in any of the demonstrations?
3. Did you ever participate in demonstrations or fight for your rights?
4. Dr. Martin Luther King was a frequent visitor to Birmingham. Did you ever get a chance
to see him speak?
5. How was life different in Birmingham in the 1960’s from how it is today?
6. On the day of the bombing, you answered a call from someone who may have been one
of the bombers. Can you describe that call? Did it concern you?
7. You knew the four girls who were killed in the bombing. How did you cope with the
news of their deaths?
8. Bombings were a fairly frequent occurrence in Birmingham while you were growing up.
Were you personally touched by any other bombings?
9. One of the messages in your book, While the World Watched is for forgiveness and
moving towards reconciliation. Do you think this is possible?
10. What are your hopes and dreams for your children and grandchildren? Do you feel they
have opportunities that you did not?
Carolyn is available for national interviews to promote the February 2011 publication of While the
World Watched. Contact Vicky Lynch at [email protected] or at (630) 362-8829 to schedule an
interview or to learn more.