Carolyn Maull McKinstry, survivor of the Birmingham church bombing in 1963.

She has written a book, While the World Watched, about how the tragedy shaped her life, and her experiences living with Jim Crow, segregation and through the Civil Rights era. It is a message of forgiveness, love and peace. She believes that one day at a time and with one act of kindness at a time, we can change the world and that we have a duty to overcome the effects of hate. Mrs. McKinstry told me her favorite quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is on page one of the book: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

She gave me an inscribed copy of her book, for which I was most grateful and I reciprocated by sending her a copy of Adam Goodheart’s 1861, which contains a great chapter on the history of Fort Monroe and the contraband slaves, and was the basis for Professor Goodheart’s article in the New York Times Magazine last April, “How Slavery Really Ended in America.” Professor Goodheart’s book and magazine article played a pivotal role in the President’s designation of Fort Monroe as a National Monument on November 1, and he was invited to the Oval Office to witness the President sign the executive order that created the monument.

Mrs. McKintstry lives in Birmingham and remains an active member of Sixteenth Street Baptist.

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