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Whites Recall the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham pp 31–45Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Narrating Recollections

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Part of the book series: Cultural Sociology ((CULTSOC))

Abstract

This chapter contrasts the way that media in Birmingham represented Civil Rights Movement events with the national media’s image of Birmingham. It reviews sociological accounts of the May 1963 demonstrations and the importance of events such as the “Children’s March” to galvanizing support for the Movement in the North. Relying on interviews with twenty classmates, Gill shows that the event so important in Northern minds had little impact on interviewees. The chapter shows that many interviewees center their recollections on the killing of the four girls in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. She discusses a conversion narrative that has developed among white Southerners centering on the church bombing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Carole Robertson’s parents chose to have a separate funeral for their daughter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

    Sandra K. Gill

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  1. Sandra K. Gill
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Gill, S.K. (2017). Narrating Recollections. In: Whites Recall the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47136-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47136-5_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47135-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47136-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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