Barbara Cross and Rev. Carolyn McKinstry
Carolyn McKinstry
Rev.
Living in the shadows of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing By Joshua Smith Carolyn McKinstry was 15 years old when the KKK bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL on Sept. 15, 1963. The white supremacist group attacked the church as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights activists called for peaceful demonstrations around the South. “I walked in the sanctuary and the clock was hanging on the wall: 10:22 a.m. is a time I will never forget. That’s when I heard the blast—that horrifying boom,” said McKinstry. “For a second, I thought it was thunder or a lighting strike. I vividly remember three things from that horror-filled moment: the sound of feet scurrying past me to get to the exits,
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the glass shattering in the distance and and when I looked up at the stained glass window, Jesus’ beautiful face was gone.” McKinstry, who lost four of her friends on that “Youth Sunday” morning, recalled that horrific moment in history while visiting New Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lithonia, where she was the special guest speaker at New Bethel’s Feb. 26, 2014 Black History Month program. Barbara Cross joined McKinstry at the Lithonia church for the program. Cross, who lives in the Atlanta area and also survived the bombing in 1963, said she had to come support her friend. “When I heard about the program, I knew I had to come out and support Carolyn,” said Cross, who was recognized during New Bethel’s program.