Morning Light Through the Wales Window

On September 15, 1963, a bomb planted by Ku Klux Klan members exploded beneath the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls preparing for Youth Day services — Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson, all fourteen, and eleven-year-old Carol Denise McNair. The blast tore through the east side of the church, destroying a stained glass window and scattering debris across the basement where the girls had gathered.…