Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution

In the last ten years there have been a number of truly excellent first hand accounts of the events that transformed America in the 1950s and 1960s through the actions of the civil rights movement. Yet none of these masterful accounts is better than this first hand account by one of the principals in the final such confrontation in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. Diane McWhorter, a journalist and also a native Alabamian, carefully essays the complex welter of conflicting forces animating the growing battle between the conservative forces of the white establishment on the one hand, and the coalition of different black and other liberal groups on the other, determined to finally break down the color barriers in Birmingham once and for all. In language that often seems more powerfully written in the prose of fiction than in the antiseptic words of journalism, the author ignites the pages with a firestorm of powerfully etched incidents and images, describing the seemingly indescribable historic events that frame the story of the epic struggle that was Birmingham. Early in the spring of 1963, civil rights protestors, including black school children, were met with senseless systematic ferocity by armed thugs and attack dogs. A few short weeks later, the KKK cowardly bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, murdering four pre-adolescent black girls in one of the most horrific and despicable acts of the entire civil rights era. Thus in a few short months, Birmingham became the most violent epicenter for the most bloody final episode of the entire burgeoning civil rights struggle. The scenes recounted are gripping and dramatic, ranging from those of ordinary black folks facing down brutality and violence with quiet resolve, never resorting to all too understandable revenge or payback. Each scene is backed up by a extremely well-documented series of vignettes and facts, supporting all of the historical accounts with a riveting web of first person knowledge and a sense for the central crucial elements of the story as it memorably unfolds with all of its native drama and innate excitement. From the opening events of terror-filled reprisals against "nonconforming" 'colored' individuals to the increasingly well organized and masterfully orchestrated campaigns conducted by savvy and experienced civil rights activists, as the smoke clears it is the forces for change that emerge victorious, despite all of the resources and powers of the established order being marshaled against them. This is an extremely well written and eminently readable book that masterfully summarizes a plethora of related incidents and historical events into an entertaining and educational work that will certainly stand the test of time and will likely become a standard reference for students wishing to understand one of the most fateful of the battles eventuating in the success of the civil rights movement. This is a book I can highly recommend for all readers. Enjoy!

I'm not usually a non-fiction reader, but when I reached the end of "Carry Me Home," I wanted to go right back to page one and read the whole thing over again. It's a page-turner, startlingly lucid - brilliant storytelling. It's a work of sharp, muscular scholarship: McWhorter's research is so thorough -- the reader knows no lead has been ignored, no microfilm unread, no significant (living) character in the drama left uninterviewed. Lastly, as a look at one of the pivotal tragedies in the history of the United States - the murder by bombing of the four little girls in Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, and the history that led up to, and flowed from, the event - it uncovers much about the history of race, class and power in this country, and how we all live a part of that history. Heroes. such as the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and other early Movement leaders, are brilliantly brought to life. As are the villains. Extraordinary courage -- murderous cowardice. The reader lives with them both. For me, "Carry Me Home" raised the whole question of collective responsibility for racial murder, simply by telling the story so well. Diane McWhorter, obviously driven by an intellectual curiosity of the first order, has created a work that will make all who read it better students of American history. In fact, I think "Carry Me Home" should be required reading in every eleventh grade U.S. History class -- as well as a staple of college U.S. History syllabi.

This book superbly puts into focus the critical juncture of the Civil Rights revolution and almost no one emerges unscathed from an unholy cauldron of evil-doing by the shifting alliances of the FBI, the Kennedys, Governor George Wallace,the Birmingham News (the state's largest newspaper), local Alabama industrialists, U.S. Steel and many others. The story continues even today. The perpetrators of a bombing that killed four children went on to participate in other infamous acts including more murder, while the FBI stood back, just as today it reluctantly minimizes its cooperation with prosecutors as two more accused in the bombing go to trial after 37 years. What does the FBI fear now from its now dead informant who was involved up to his neck? Does the perverse racist and vindictive spirit of J. Edgar Hoover still drive the motives of the FBI? Is the FBI still as paranoid about people who might "embarrass and humiliate the bureau" to the extent they forget the real public responsibility neglected here. Everyone who was anyone for the most part got into bed with the Ku Klux Klan, including the FBI and George Wallace. Wallace, whatever he said or thought, was disgusting until the day he died with his public lies about his Klan connections.I was born and raised in Birmingham, worked there as a journalist during and after this period and covered many of the bombings and events Ms. McWhorter discusses. This is a magisterial work. Not just about the Civil Rights Revolution, but about dirty politics and corrupt journalists who pandered to the racists and the Klan. Ms. McWhorter pushes aside the clouds of hate and fear to see both the heroes and the villains. And she tells the story as only someone who knews the terrain could tell it.

This book does a wonderful job of conjuring up the life of a young white girl from Birmingham's elite and her family, people from the kind of society that made it possible for the tragedy there to happen. The book is meticulous in its rendering of history, and really goes into the minutiae of how the church bombing happened and who did it. Still, McWhorter keeps it interesting, where other historians might tumble under a weight of detail. It's a big (long) book, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.