Dale Long: Full interview

Dale Long grew up in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s and remembers the harsh culture of segregation and the violent backlash to the Civil Rights Movement in the city. He was 12 years old when the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in 1963; he was scheduled to play clarinet with the church orchestra that day, which was Youth Day. When the bomb detonated, he saw light bulbs explode, and the room shook before everything went dark and the air was filled with dust and the smell of dynamite. Later that day he learned of the deaths of the four girls, including Cynthia Wesley, who also played clarinet and sat next to him in the orchestra; Carol Robertson, whose mother had grown up with his mother; Denise McNair, whose family were close friends with his family; and Addie Mae Collins, who often rode home from church with his family.