63 years after Birmingham church bombing, Denise McNair’s sister calls on people to confront racism
By Ayron Lewallen
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WVTM) — Sixty-three years after four little girls were killed at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, Lisa McNair said the hatred behind the attack is not confined to history.
Lisa’s sister, Denise McNair, was only 11 years old when she was killed alongside Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson on Sept. 15, 1963. Ku Klux Klan members planted dynamite beneath the steps of 16th Street Baptist Church. The bomb exploded before Sunday morning service, killing the four girls, injuring nearly 20 other people and severely damaging the building.
The attack shocked the nation and intensified support for the Civil Rights Movement. It became part of the national reckoning that helped build momentum for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, amid the broader struggle for voting rights, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She feels some of those rights are under attack today.
“[I’m] very upset that they’re trying to take the voting rights away from us and everybody. and I think that we’re not mad enough about it as Americans on the right and on the left,” McNair said. “We need to really get mad and really fight with that anger, not hurt people with that anger … Denise and others died for that. We should not let their death be in vain and be silent. We can no longer be silent witnesses and say, ‘Well, it’ll be all right.’ No, it won’t. We have to be bold. [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.] said we have to substitute courage for caution, and this is a time for us to do that.”
Speaking at Denise’s gravesite — the first time she has done so with a local television news station — McNair reflected on her family’s loss and the racism she believes has become more visible again in recent years.
For McNair, though, the history is also personal. She said her faith and the example set by her father taught her not to answer racism with more hatred. McNair said her father refused to judge an entire race by the people who murdered his daughter and believes love should not be mistaken for silence or inaction. She is calling on fellow Christians — particularly white Christians — to stand more forcefully against racism and hate.
Her message carries particular weight at Denise’s gravesite, where the engraving captures the collision of innocence and hatred that still echoes decades later: “She loved all but a mad bomber hated her kind.”
McNair said she does not know who chose those words. With both of her parents now gone, she can no longer ask them.
Birmingham leaders and community members will gather at 16th Street Baptist Church to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the bombing. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. City and church leaders will honor the four girls and open the church’s new education and visitors center.
McNair hopes it will serve as a living lesson — preserving the truth of what happened at the church and helping future generations understand both the consequences of hate and the responsibility to confront it.
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