In Birmingham, the tragedy laid bare a deep rift.
Carolyn McKinstry, standing on the sidewalk outside 16th Street Baptist Church, remembers arriving for worship 50 years ago.
"It was Youth Day," she says. "We were excited because that meant we got to do everything. We sang, we ushered, we did everything."
Some of her Sunday school classmates had gone to the ladies' room to freshen up.
"They were combing hair. No doubt they were excited about the fact it was Youth Sunday. Girls just like to talk and primp, you know."
McKinstry says it was 10:15 when the bomb went off.
"People screamed," she remembers. "Glass was crashing in. And I heard someone say, 'Hit the floor!' "
Later she learned that her classmates in the restroom — Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins — were killed, and Addie Mae's sister, Sarah, was seriously wounded.
