by Larry Dane Brimner
IL: Grades 6 and up
RL: 8+
Birmingham Sunday tells the story of segregation and the impact it had on blacks in the South. The book begins with the account of the horrific day in 1963 when sticks of dynamite were placed under Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church's stairs and detonated during services, killing four young girls. Brinmer then proceeds to provide the back story of the events that lead up to the attack. Birmingham Sunday is highly factual, providing details on the Jim Crow laws of the time, leaders on both sides of the Civil Rights movements, groups like the KKK and NAACP, Brown v. the Board of Education, and the Freedom Rides to name a few. The book is full of photos of the events of the time, allowing the reader to experience the emotions of those involved in the events. There are numerous sidebars which flesh out the story. The pages often contain large quotes that highlight the more detailed accounts given in the paragraphs. The final pages provide biographical information about the four killed as well as information on the men that carried out the attacks.
This book is incredibly powerful. Its treatment of this tumultuous time in American history is stunning. Some of the photographs are very graphic, but they are not used gratuitously, but are there to illustrate the violence that was a daily part of the Civil Rights Movement. The lack of an index make this somewhat difficult to use for specific reports on the Civil Rights Movement, but events at the time were so intertwined that even if a student were doing a report on a specific aspect they could use this for supporting material. Source notes are well detailed and there is a bibliography for further reading. This is an excellent resource for the classroom or for anyone wanting a detailed account of the time period.
Brimner, L.D. (2010). Birmingham Sunday. Honesdale, PA: Calkins Creek.
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