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Maxine McNair, last living parent of a child killed in Birmingham church bombing, dies at 93
Maxine McNair, the last living parent of any of the children killed in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, died Sunday at age 93.
McNair’s daughter, Denise McNair, died in the bombing alongside Addie Mae Collins, Carole Rosamond Robertson and Cynthia Dionne Wesley. The case went unsolved for years. Three members of the Ku Klux Klan were eventually convicted, the first in 1977 and two more in 2001.
Maxine McNair worked as a teacher for 33 years in the Birmingham public school system. Her daughter Lisa McNair said she changed many lives through education and left a lasting legacy in the students she touched.
Denise (left) and Maxine McNair. Denise McNair died in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Her mother died on Jan. 2, 2022.
“We will miss her terribly,” Lisa McNair said. “She was a wonderful mother and an excellent schoolteacher.”
The Birmingham church bombing shocked the nation during the fight for the Civil Rights. The four girls between the ages of 11 and 14 became innocent victims and emblems of the racist hatred that animated much of the opposition to equal rights.
McNair and her husband, former Jefferson County Commissioner Chris McNair, waited decades for justice in the case. The family attended trials in 2001 and 2002 of two men identified as suspects in 1965 but not prosecuted for more than 30 years. According to news reports from the trial, Maxine McNair had attended church the day of the bombing but wasn’t injured in the blast. She described her thoughts after the explosion.
“The first thing I said was, ‘My baby. My baby.’ I don’t know why I said that,” she said, according to the Birmingham News.
Lisa McNair said her mother always stressed the importance of education. In 2002, Villanova University in Pennsylvania created a scholarship to honor Denise McNair.
Birmingham City Council President Wardine Alexander said Maxine McNair was an icon in her community.
“To many she was simply the mother of Denise McNair, one of the four little girls,” Alexander said. “To us, in the Cairo community of District 7, she was neighbor, friend, and long-time educator. She will forever be etched in our hearts as a matriarch of social justice and Birmingham Civil Rights.”
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin released a statement on Facebook about McNair’s death.
“Mrs. McNair was a matriarch of social justice in our city, an incredible wife and mother who imparted love and wisdom on hundreds of young minds while serving 33 years in the Birmingham public school system,” Woodfin wrote.
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RIP
