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    While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement
    While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement
    While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement
    Audiobook7 hours

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

    Written by Carolyn Maull McKinstry and Denise George

    Narrated by Felicia Bullock

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Fifteen-year-old Carolyn Maull McKinstry was just a few feet away when the Klan - planted bomb that killed four of her friends exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was one of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history...and the turning point in a young girl's life.

    Carolyn's story is a poignant and gripping eyewitness account of what it was like to grow up in the Jim Crow South - from the bombings, riots, and assassinations to the historic marches and triumphs that characterized the Civil Rights era.

    A unique and moving exploration of how racial relations have evolved over the past five decades, While the World Watched is an incredible testament to how far we've come - and how far we have yet to go.

    ©2013 Tyndale House Publishers (P)2013 Oasis Audio

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOasis Audio
    Release dateOct 1, 2013
    ISBN9781621882862

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    Reviews for While the World Watched

    4.5/5

    87 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed the content and the narrator, she brought this story to life for me. Listening to this book allowed me to catch a glimpse into the life of someone human, someone oppressed, someone who managed to make a life for themselves despite all their trials and tribulations. This is a story worth listening to and you should give it a listen!
    • 4/5
      Im not a prodigious reader, so pretty much any book for me at this point is going to be less than "loved it", which dictated the 4 star rating. It was eye opening, heart wrenching, and encouraging. Sometimes I wasnt sure about the year the narration was being done in and sometimes I wasnt sure if I accidentally hit the rewind button because part of the opening sentence in a chapter would be echoed and expanded upon later on in that chapter. Once I realized that it was fine. In the end this felt like a book about the power of Christ's love just as much as it did about the hate fueled actions of the civil rights era racists.
    • 5/5
      A heartbreaking look at our history in the south, and though it travels through deep pain and brokenness it is a beautiful journey of faith and forgiveness.
    • 4/5
      Es un relato desde el interior de la discriminación racial sufrida en Birmingham en los años sesenta. Sin duda, lo que la población afroamericana ha tenido que sufrir y el admirable liderazgo de Martín Luther King trae grandes lecciones. Por desgracia, aunque interesante y recomendable, la historia se me ha hecho larga y repetitiva por momentos y la voz de la narración no ayudó mucho a su causa, triste y monótona suena como un largo suspiro. Aún así no dejo de recomendarlo.
    • 5/5
      This phenomenal woman's story and heartfelt words truly inspired me to be a better person. God bless her and her family
    • 4/5
      An excellent civil rights historical narrative from an eyewitness's perspective. However, the monotone of the narrator kept the rendition from a higher rating
    • 2/5
      I gave up on this half-way through. It is another attempt to turn a few hour event into a full length novel. The problem is that although the event itself may be interesting, the rest of the book is generally not. The author details her early life and events on the day in question in minute detail. These details describe a normal day in the life of many Americans and do not make for interesting reading. The author quotes extensively from the speeches of Martin Luther King who is obviously an important figure in her life, it may have been better for her to use relevant quotes.

      The content was not overtly Christian. I wouldn't recommend this as it was just not that interesting.
    • 5/5
      Compelling look at the life of a girl growing up in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement. Full of insight, this book really takes today's readers back in time.
    • 3/5
      From the book description “On September 15, 1963, a Klan-planted bomb went off in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Fourteen-year-old Carolyn Maull was just a few feet away when the bomb exploded, killing four of her friends in the girl’s rest room she had just exited. It was one of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history . . . and the turning point in a young girl’s life.”

      Living through the civil rights upheaval of the 1960’s as a teenager was difficult for Ms. McKinstry. Not only did the bomb explode mere feet from where she was standing but she also lost four of her closest friends in the Baptist Church bombing and that impacted her life in ways she herself did not even realize until she was an adult. Despite living and growing up in “the most segregated and racially violent city in America", with the help of a strong family and unwavering faith she managed to go on with her life, education and career. Even so, it was difficult when many years later she was called to testify in the bomber’s trial, bringing every minute of that fateful day back to the forefront.

      Growing up in Canada, I am probably not as informed about the civil rights movement as I could be but I found this book both interesting and enlightening. My only complaint would be that it felt a little disjointed. Ms. McKinstry slips into different time periods from time to time with no real explanation or warning. She also interspersed her telling of her story with quotes from speeches by Martin Luther King, JFK and others and I found that rather than adding to that particular section of her story it distracted me from what she herself was saying.
    • 4/5
      This is a very readable account of one woman's life in which she tells about her experiences dealing with racial injustice. At the age of 14, Carolyn Maull McKinstry lost four close friends in the bombing of the church in Birmingham - and her life wasn't the same after that. This book describes the injustices that she and her family and friends were forced to live with - and what she did to help things change. It is a very good introduction to the Civil Rights movement - and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see what happened during those years from a personal perspective - instead of just what we saw in the news or read about in text books.
    • 5/5
      Attention:

      There are some pictures with this. They are NOT graphic but still sad to see.

      I have so many emotions about this book going on inside of me right now that I don't know exactly how to start let alone finish. I will do my very best not to get too long winded but I won't promise....

      I will begin with what I put on Amazon's review when I finished the book (Read this on Kindle) & I will go from there...

      This book touched me in so many ways and for so many reasons. I deal with a lot of hurt from my past as well and her talking about forgiveness for the people who killed her friends and others who hurt her...helped me to deal with my issues as well.

      This started off as me getting deeper into learning about a topic I've studied for over 20 years and then goes into me also learning to let go and heal. I had always enjoyed learning about Dr. Martin Luther King when I was in elementary school...Then, when I hit my Senior year of high school (1992-1993), I had to retake history and got a teacher by the name of Mrs.V. Leake, and that was the best class retake I could have ever had...she pushed me (and other students)even deeper into learning about the Civil Rights Movement,Slavery and just our history period...regardless of race....

      When I first learned of (read about) the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (September 15, 1963) I was heartbroken...(I wasn't born until almost 11 years after the bombing, in September 1974)I learned what I could about it and heard a little about the cases that the prosecutors had tried to bring charges but no such luck at that time...So, many years later they did bring charges against two (2) men...When they tried to bring charges on another man previously, he died before they could file them. (No, this is not a spoiler, it is part of "public record")

      Carolyn talked about her experience at the church as a child and teenager...What was going on during the day of the bombing and what the other four (4) young ladies were doing right before the bombing...

      As she got older, went off to college, married, had children...she spoke of her feelings and the struggles she had throughout her life because of the bombing and losing her friends, Denise, Addie Mae, Carole, & Cynthia.

      photo 0_0_293_305_zpsc92f16ea.jpg


      But she doesn't just talk about the bombing. She talks about some things that happened to lead up to that bombing and why the church was targeted. Martin Luther King coming to speak, marches, the children marching (the ones who were hosed & had dogs attack them)

      photo childrens-march1_zps37ace4ec.jpg


      photo birmingham-1963_zpsa522e8ca.jpg

      She speaks of her beliefs and what she feels has gotten her through all of her tough times in her life. And when she began speaking of that in her adulthood and the issues she had to fight...that touched me as well because, as I stated earlier, I have had to deal with my issues and when she talked about trying to battle through some of them...It helped me to know that, with all she has seen and been through...and she can work through hers, I can work through mine as well and the change will not happen overnight!

      I guess the feelings I had for this book didn't necessarily come out the way I expected them to but I still have a great feeling of emotion over this book and the things she talked about. Even if you don't study the C.R.M. but you want to know more about what took place and want a personal account of it, this book is a good start. It came out around the time of the 50th anniversary of the bombing this year. And that's what made me pick it up to read it. She does jump back and forth from one situation to the next. She may speak of something that took place at the church, then go forward in years or back in years then go back to the church again...But it's very easy to follow...For me it was anyway.

      I will end this with a couple of my favorite quotes/speeches from Dr. King:

      martin luther king quotes photo: Decide to Love, hate is too great a burden, Martin Luther King Jr LoveHate_zpsf8ed0f8d.jpg

      martin luther king quotes photo: Martin Luther King Jr. quotes CIMG2021.jpg

    • 5/5
      On Sunday, September 15th, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, four young girls (Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14)) lost their lives in the racist bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. They were in the girl’s restroom where another young girl had been laughing and chatting with them just moments before. Her name was Carolyn Maull and this book is her story, not just of that precipitous moment in time, but of the era of the Civil Rights movement from the eyes of a young girl living not on the fringes, but dead center of the most violently racist city in the United States at that time. This is a not merely a story of hatred, but also of hope, love and forgiveness. The events related in this book are history that many of us lived through, many of us can remember reading in the daily news, and other, younger people have learned through their study of American history. I can remember most of these events from the newspaper and nightly news in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but this account goes beyond the journalistic efforts of the period. No reader will come away from this book without learning something, and no reader will come away without their heart having been touched. No book about these events can exist without the presence of certain bigger-than-life heroes: Martin Luther King, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, John F. Kennedy, and more. Ms. McKinstry has included portions of several of MLK’s speeches that will, for those of us who lived that era, bring his voice into our heads as we hear, if only in memory, the cadence of his speech. Lines like “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” abound and transport us back a half-century.Ms. McKinstry lost her innocence, her childhood, that day in 1963. For many years she moved through life, earning a college degree, eventually marrying and having children, yet never truly coming to grips with the horrors of that day. That was the day she lost four friends, one of them her closest friend. That was the day she looked the most profound form of hatred in the eye and learned of the existence of evil. When she married some years later, her husband was not even aware that she had played a role in the infamous Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. It would be many more years filled with private grief before Carolyn would be able to confide in him. Ms. McKinstry is a literate, intelligent writer and she has done an excellent job in both researching and writing this book. My only criticism is that there is some repetition that sometimes becomes slightly annoying, but it in no way interfered with my ability to enjoy this story, to learn from this story, and to be touched beyond words by this story. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. In fact, I think it should be required reading in high school American history courses, as it is certainly more interesting and informative than the textbooks. I hope some who read this review and then read the book will send me a message on Goodreads and let me know what you thought. Happy reading!
    • 5/5
      At 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in Sept. 1963 a terrible and planned catastrophe took place inside the church. Men with great hatred in their heart for people who were not of their race decided to bomb the church during Youth Day. This was a special day for young black people and their parents, relatives, siblings, friends and neighbors. The girls were dressed in white. The boys in dark pants and white shirts with ties. Sadly, that Sunday was interrupted by a bomb thrown by men in the community. One little girl, Carolyn, lived not far from one of the men who would be charged with the crime. The only warning given, and it wasn't really a warning was a phone call received by Carolyn because she worked or helped out in the church office. She picked up the phone that Sunday morning and heard two words "three minutes."She had no idea what these words were pertaining to or who had made the telephone call.It is known that shortly the church would be blown away. The four little girls in the restroom would be murdered for no reason at all. All they wanted to do was to serve the church on that Sunday. In 2008 Barack Obama now President Barack Obama gave a speech about the bombing on that fateful, always memorable Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama. In his speech he names each little girl: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. All girls no older than fourteen years old. Barack Obama goes on to imagine what the girls might have chosen to do with their lives if they had lived beyond their so young years. "I imagine that in quiet moments, many of you have thought about who Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley might have become had they been allowed to grow up. Maybe a doctor and a history teacher, a singer and a social worker--their world..." Carolyn Maull Mckinstry knew these girls well. They were her favorite friends to attend church and school with and to have fun with too. I wonder what their friendships would have been like as adults. Would they have chosen the same colleges? Would their children have become friends with one another? I feel sure each girl would have given some service to the community. I am sure they would have been good citizens. Because Mrs. Mckinstry loved these friends she never ever forgot them. It was as if their hearts continued to beat and strive to live in her body. She walked with them on her mind daily as a married woman and with her own children. She tells how the emotional pain became unbearable. In those days there were no Trauma counselors to come to the school. No child psychologists for little black children. This fact alone made the children more than heroes. I was also struck by the fact that Mr. Medgar Evers children saw him shot in the back as he got out of his car and walked up his driveway. In WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED, Mrs. Mckinstry holds nothing back not even the way she dealt with living in a hate filled world where she never knew from day to day which family would be destroyed by a bomb again. In the end I can only remember the author as a strong, giving woman who didn't fail to live out the words in I Corinthians 13 Love bears all things. She writes a great deal about forgiveness. It does not happen without a lot of soul searching.On that Sunday The big stained glass church window with Jesus Christ's face in it was blown completely out. To me it seemed as if the horror done to His sanctuary was a sight He didn't want to look upon. Thankfully in later years the stained glass window was restored by men and women who lived in Wales. The restoration proves that God will not allow hate to win against love. Again people attend the 16th Street Baptist Church singing praises to the Lord. However, after this bombing and other bombings for awhile Birmingham, Alabama became known as Bombingham, Alabama due to the mind set of people like Bull Connor and George McGovern. Also, in 1982 a memorial marker was placed for the four girls who lost their lives in 1963.Thankfully what is awful, hateful does not remain that way. Alabama has come a long way. Even Mr. McGovern before his death had a change of heart. The author, Carolyn Maull McKinstry is able to see the sun behind the clouds. She is a woman filled with love and hope.She sees her friends in their Heavenly home. I feel proud to have read her story. I will never forget her story.carolynmckinstry(TYNDALE HOUSE PUB.)
    • 4/5
      I have never read much about the civil rights movement - not due to lack of interest, but just because most of the history books I read for several years were for college classes, and my focus was not on America. So, while browsing the Kindle's free library, I found this book, read a few chapters, and was so engrossed in the memoir that I bought a copy of my own.The author was a member of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and she was in the building when it was bombed by white supremacists, which killed four girls (all four of whom she knew and was friends with, and one was her best friend). Understandably traumatized by the event, the author details her struggles with forgiving the people responsible for the bombing, as well as her own involvement in the civil rights movement.It was an interesting read, and I found it difficult to put the book down for an extending period of time. Sometimes the writing seemed more geared towards a younger audience, and I could have done without the preachy tone (especially towards the end), but altogether, it was definitely worth my time to read this book.