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Constructing a Cultural Trauma

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Whites Recall the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham

Part of the book series: Cultural Sociology ((CULTSOC))

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Abstract

This chapter charts the development of a trauma narrative around the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Using the sociological theory of cultural trauma, Gill explains why the Church bombing has become key to collective memory of the Civil Rights Movement. After the bombing and subsequent riots, traditional narratives grounded in the myth of the Lost Cause could no longer support white identity. Gill discusses representation of the ‘four little girls,’ and how innocence, gender, class, and the sacred location of the bombing informed the development of collective memory. She discusses the impact of the trials of the church bombers beginning in 1987 on representation. The trials developed the nature of the perpetrators and individualized the ‘four little girls.’

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Like others whites who have killed blacks they imagined dangerous, our classmates were soon released. An all‐white jury convicted Joe of second‐degree manslaughter; Mike pleaded the same. They transferred to other high schools and served two years of probation (NYT 3/10/1964:30).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

    Sandra K. Gill

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  1. Sandra K. Gill
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Gill, S.K. (2017). Constructing a Cultural Trauma. In: Whites Recall the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47136-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47136-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47135-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47136-5

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