4 Little Girls

I was not born when the Birmingham church bombing occurred. I first read about it when I was 10 or 11 in a Reader's Digest story and for some reason the names of the girls stuck in my mind all these years. I saw this on HBO and it is one of the only films that continued to leave an emotional impression on me long after it was over. Especially the haunting last image of Denise McNair happily holding her beloved (white) doll, and the overwhelming sense that someone who should be in the world today, is not with us. The interviews with family and friends of the girls are what makes this documentary special. Also it does a great job of educating people about Birmingham's civil rights history up to the bombing and just how it took an appalling act of violence to wake up white America. Let's hope it never takes this sort of crime again to make us wake up to other simmering injustices.

The bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963 was sort of the 9/11 of its day. Its interesting this bombing was on September 15 only four days later. It was a crime that shook the nation and the world. Its still in the news! There was a man who only recently was convicted for his role in it. Spike Lee does an amazing job in bringing this tragedy back to us. In interviews with the families of these girls and various others. The one that got me is the one with George Wallace. I thought it was really pathetic the way he kept bringing his butler into the picture and saying that he had a black friend. If anyone symbolized the bigotry and violence in the South during this period, its Wallace and I think to show him in this was wrong. By the way, the song at the opening when they show these poor little girl's graves will haunt you for a long time.

Lee's film does an excellent job of bringing the girls to life. It is very easy to lump the four girls together into one entity, as the "Eyes on the Prize" documentary did, but Spike Lee was able to set them apart as individuals and shows the grief felt by the friends and relatives to this day. However, the documentary seems to tell only about two-thirds of the story. Some of the nitty-gritty details about the bombing and the investigation are quickly summarized in order to bring the film to a quick conclusion. If I didn't know from other sources, I would not have known, for example, the nature of the bomb -- was it set by a timer? Thrown into the church? (I know from news accounts that it was the latter, but you would not have known if you were uninitiated and just learning through this documentary.) There are also questions that come to mind that Lee leaves unanswered: What was the reaction of the white community in the area (I know, for example, that the bombing was certainly not unanimously cheered by the white south)? How was the bombing investigated? What eventually led the investigators to the guilty parties? The story of the 15 year search for the bomber and his accomplices (in fact, the search went on longer than that, even into the year 2001) is an important part of the story. A film as powerful as this should have taken the time to go into every nook and cranny of the story. Yes, it was excellent. Yes, it should have won the Documentary award for that year. Yes, it brought a tear to my eye. But there could have been so much more, and could have made the story that much more powerful.

Spike Lee did an excellent job with this documentary. I too, was extremely shocked that it did not win the Oscar the year it was nominated. One of the victims was my cousin, my fathers favorite niece at that. Growing up and learning about this tragedy first hand was very enlightening and yet tragic all at the same time. This film definitely captures the pain and suffering of my family and of the entire black community that lived through such racially biased times in Birmingham, Alabama. I think that this film should be seen by all, and not just during Black History month. In my opinion, there is no justification for the actions of those involved and it took some time and patience but they too had to pay for their crimes.

This is a great documentary which speaks to the central battles of the civil rights movement and the still present racism in America. Wide range of interview subjects from family members, politicians and those who covered the story when it happened. Spike Lee's work elicits strong emotions at times but also leaves you to provide your own conclusions as well. Recommended along with dramatized movies such as Ghosts of Mississippi, Mississippi Burning and the little watched A Long Walk Home. Watch these to learn something of the darker side of American history and decide for yourself how far we have come in the last forty years.