While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement

McKinstry’s parents were both educated and hard-working, and they went to great lengths to protect their children from the brutal reality of racial violence and segregation that plagued Birmingham.

McKinstry’s father held a master’s degree in applied sciences and taught physics and chemistry at an all-Black high school. On evenings and weekends, he worked a “menial job” waiting tables at the elite all-white country club. All the money from the country club was saved for his six children’s college education. McKinstry’s father was known in their family for his love of order and his “nonnegotiable rules.” At the time, McKinstry saw these rules as unfair and bothersome; however, in hindsight, she realizes that her father’s “strict rules were designed as an invisible form of protection” and “reflected Birmingham’s segregation laws” (45). For example, he forbade his children from riding the public bus or crossing the railroad tracks where notoriously violent Klansmen lived.

McKinstry’s mother was a schoolteacher and very different from her father. In contrast to her “efficient, organized” husband, McKinstry’s mother was “laid-back” and “unassuming” (26). However, she, too, worked hard to shield her children from the realities of segregation in Birmingham. For example, she often told her children they just “[didn’t] have the money” when they asked to go to a new restaurant or the local amusement park instead of telling them these places were off-limits to Black people. In doing so, she hoped to protect her children from racial violence and developing feelings of inferiority.

McKinstry was very close to her maternal grandparents, and both her grandfather and grandmother supported her with their “wisdom and patience and steady belief in God” (206).

Mama Lessie was a strong, determined woman who raised five daughters before returning to school and completing her education. She was known to guard her daughters with a shotgun while her husband was out of town and successfully sent each of the girls to college. McKinstry spent summers with her grandparents, and being around her grandmother made her feel special and “so loved.” When Mama Lessie was just 54 years old, she was admitted to the local hospital with symptoms of abdominal pain and bleeding. McKinstry assumed that Mama Lessie would be “in a clean room in the main hospital ward, where doctors could treat her and make her well” (52). She was shocked when her “beloved grandmother” was given a bed in the basement and little attention from doctors. Watching Mama Lessie die in the hospital basement was one of McKinstry’s first experiences with the ugly reality of segregation.

McKinstry’s grandfather was a highly respected man because he was a preacher and held a college degree. Like Mama Lessie, spending time with her grandfather made McKinstry feel loved and special, as he eagerly showed her off to his friends in Clanton. He often told McKinstry that her name, Carolyn, means “strong one” and reminded her to live up to that expectation. He was a great source of spiritual guidance. “encouragement and advice” for McKinstry, and she missed him terribly after he died in 1971.

Jerome and Carolyn McKinstry met while attending Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Carolyn McKinstry was in a deep depression after the loss of her friends and the trauma of surviving the church bombing. She spent her days praying that God would alleviate the “dark cloud” that hung over her, and Jerome was the answer to that prayer. At first, she thought Jerome, who introduced himself as “Je-Romeo,” was annoying and full of himself. However, she gradually began to see that he was “a reflection of God’s [unconditional] love” (199).

The two were married in January 1968. After graduation, Jerome was drafted into the Air Force, where he served in Korea. Jerome and McKinstry had three children together, and he was a constant source of comfort and support. However, McKinstry struggled to talk about her experiences with the bombing and was unable to share her trauma with her husband for many years. Although she became “aloof and emotionally distant” (202) as she struggled with depression and substance use disorder, Jerome never wavered in his commitment to his wife.