In Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, it is one little girl’s 10th birthday. Excited about Youth Day at the 16th Street Baptist Church, she puts on her patent leather shoes and practices her choir solo. But her birthday will include no cake and no candles this year.

A group of men have tucked a bundle of dynamite under the church’s steps, and when it goes off, four girls are dead: AddieMae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair. Smoke clogs the throats of worshippers as they search for sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers in the crumbled plaster and broken glass.

Author Carole Boston Weatherford, an award-winning poet and children’s author, shares this story in poignant free verse poetry from the viewpoint of a fictional child eyewitness. Listeners will be transported back to this dark period in American history by Lizzie Cooper Davis’ moving narration.

“These children—unoffending; innocent and beautiful—were the victims of one of the most vicious, heinous crimes ever perpetrated against humanity ... in spite of the darkness of this hour we must not despair. We must not become bitter ...”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., eulogy for victims of the 16th Street Church bombing

“To all who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. The struggle continues.”
—Author’s dedication

Lizzie Davis