While the World Watched

Short Review: While the World Watched is a first person account of the 1963 16th Street Church Bombing where four young teenage girls died, and her life after that bombing. This is a book well worth reading to get a sense of the civil rights movement for someone that was a young teen. She was probably the last person to see the four girls before they died (she left the bathroom just before the bomb went off). The book does a good job not lionizing the civil rights movement, while at the same time showing how normal people were both scared and pissed off by the system.

It also spends time talking about pain, depression, eventual decent into alcoholism and what would probably be described as PTSD today. That is a side that most other books don't seem to mention and I think is important to telling the whole story of the civil rights movement.

Other reviews complain about the long extended quotes of speeches, sermons, songs and other documents of the era. I think that these other documents (especially in the audiobook) give greater context.

I expected that much of the book would be about the particular day, but really the book is mostly about her life after the day. Today she is the head of the foundation that oversees the 16th Street church and she has gone to seminary and works for reconciliation. That story is as important as remembering the bombing.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/while-the-world-watched/