Whites Recall the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham: We Didn’t Know it was History until after it Happened (Cultural Sociology)

This illuminating volume examines how the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama developed as a trauma of culture. Throughout the book, Sandra Gill asks why the "four little girls" killed in the bombing became part of the nation's collective memory, while two black boys killed by whites on the same day were all but forgotten. Conducting interviews with classmates who attended a white school a few blocks from some of the most memorable events of the Civil Rights Movement, Gill discovers that the bombing of the church is central to interviewees' memories. Even the boy killed by Gill's own classmates often escapes recollection. She then considers these findings within the framework of the reception of memory and analyzes how white southerners reconstruct a difficult past. Sandra K. Gill is Associate Professor of Sociology at Gettysburg College, USA, where she teaches courses in social theory, gender, and qualitative methods. Her published works include articles on gender inequality, gender differences in personality, and autobiographical memory. Whites Recall the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham 4 Series Editor’s Preface 6 Acknowledgements 7 Contents 8 1 Introduction 9 Notes 18 2 Collective Recollections: Approaches to Memory in Sociology 19 Classical Sociology and Memory 20 Collectivist Approach to Memory 21 Recalling a Difficult Past 22 Memorializing a Difficult Past 23 Linking Memory to People 24 Research on Individual Memory 25 Thinking about Culture 26 Identity, Memory, and Meaning 27 Cultural Sociology 28 3 Our Town—Our School—My Research 30 Birmingham 32 Phillips High School 33 My Research 33 Notes 36 4 Narrating Recollections 38 Birmingham: A Turning Point for the Nation 39 Autobiographical Memories of Birmingham 41 Representation in Birmingham 43 Absence of Change in Birmingham 45 Blacks Remember Birmingham 47 Whites’ Autobiographical Recollections of the Bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church 48 Conversion Narrative 50 Note 52 5 Constructing a Cultural Trauma 53 Representing September 15, 1963 56 The Trauma Process 58 The Six Children 59 Sacred Space 59 Innocence, Gender, and Class 60 The Perpetrators 62 Prosecuting Perpetrators 63 Commemoration 64 Note 68 6 Silence, Youth, and Change 69 Remembering the Two Little Boys 71 Coalition of Silence 72 Generational Change 74 White Southerner Youth and Change 75 Movement of Culture 77 Southern White Student Movements 77 University of Alabama—Spring 1970 79 Notes 84 7 Fine Families and a Forgotten Past: The New Narrative 85 We Were Nice People 86 Fine Families or Junk Cars 88 Note 90 8 Techniques of Memory 91 Narratives 92 Regretted Acts 93 Risky Confrontations 93 Defiant Deeds 94 Interpretation 95 My Memories of Birmingham 96 Interpretation 100 Notes 101 9 Conclusion 102 Recalling and Forgetting 103 Explaining Lost Memories 104 Understanding the Importance of the ‘Four Little Girls’ 107 Placing One’s Self in the Past 109 Generations and Memory 110 Erasing Black Male Lives 111 Using the Past to Shape the Future 111 Notes 113 Bibliography 114 Index 129 This volume examines how the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama developed as a trauma of culture. Throughout the book, the author asks why the "four little girls" killed in the bombing became part of the nation's collective memory, while two black boys killed by whites on the same day were all but forgotten. Conducting interviews with classmates who attended a white school a few blocks from some of the most memorable events of the Civil Rights Movement, the author discovers that the bombing of the church is central to interviewees' memories. Even the boy killed by her own classmates often escapes recollection. She then considers these findings within the framework of the reception of memory and analyzes how white southerners reconstruct a difficult past.--Publisher's description Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-10 Collective Recollections: Approaches to Memory in Sociology....Pages 11-21 Our Town—Our School—My Research....Pages 23-30 Narrating Recollections....Pages 31-45 Constructing a Cultural Trauma....Pages 47-62 Silence, Youth, and Change....Pages 63-78 Fine Families and a Forgotten Past: The New Narrative....Pages 79-84 Techniques of Memory....Pages 85-95 Conclusion....Pages 97-108 Back Matter....Pages 109-128