Jane Addams Children's Honor Book
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of the Year
This nonfiction picture book focuses on Birmingham Sunday, a fateful day
and significant part of the Civil Rights movement, and places it in
historical context.
Racial bombings were so frequent in Birmingham, Alabama that it became
known as Bombingham. Until September 15, 1963, these attacks had been
threatening but not deadly. On that Sunday morning, however, a blast in
the 16th Street Baptist Church ripped through the exterior wall and
claimed the lives of four girls. The church was the ideal target for
segregationists, as it was the rallying place for Birmingham's African
American community, Martin Luther King, Jr., using it as his
headquarters when he was in town to further the cause of desegregation
and equal rights. Rather than triggering paralyzing fear, the bombing
was the definitive act that guaranteed passage of the landmark 1964
civil rights legislation.