Four Little Girls

"Four Little Girls" is Spike Lee's immensely moving reassessment of a terrorist crime. It is a documentary, directed by Spike Lee, in which he interviews those that were involved or who held knowledge of the bombing at 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. He speaks with family members, childhood friends, civil rights activists, and public officials. The victims' parents tell in their own words of who the girls were and how they lived their everyday lives. The parents, family members, and childhood friends use stories, pictures, and memorabilia to give a perspective of who these four little girls were.

Intermingled with these interviews are clips of black protesters, marches, and beatings relevant to the political and social crisis in that particular time. As well as the newspaper clippings and music that fluently interweaves signs of the times.

Among the family members who made the biggest impressions on me, Chris McNair held a very special place in my heart. Chris McNair is the father of one of the victims, Denise McNair. Throughout his interviews, he is bravely restraint in speaking of his daughter and the events leading up to her death. He strikes me as a man who took quite awhile to come to grips with his emotions over the loss of his daughter. In one part of his interview he recalls the day Denise passed the segregated lunch counter at Kress's store and announced that the smell of frying onions made her hungry. "I guess that was the night I made up my mind to tell her that she couldn't have that sandwich because she was black," McNair says.

By the same token, there was Alpha Robertson, the mother of Carole Robertson. She affected me greatly for being almost completely opposite of Mr. McNair. Throughout her interview she expressed raw emotion. Just within her words and actions, I heard the grief and emotions that has had to endure through this terrible tragedy. At one point of