While the World Watched: Chapters 12–18

by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
In 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed a church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four African-American girls. In this memoir, survivor Carolyn Maull McKinstry recounts the bombing and life in the South under Jim Crow laws.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: Introduction–Chapter 5, Chapters 6–11, Chapters 12–18, Chapter 19–Barack Obama's Letter
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. defiant
    boldly resisting authority or an opposing force
    Alabama state troopers surrounded Wallace as he made his defiant stand against desegregation in Alabama’s all-white public schools.
  2. conscience
    motivation deriving from ethical or moral principles
    “I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents,” John F. Kennedy said.
  3. reprisal
    a retaliatory action against an enemy
    “and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.”
  4. oppression
    the state of being kept down by unjust use of authority
    That evening President Kennedy told the nation that one hundred years of delay had passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves and that their heirs weren’t yet fully free from injustice, social discrimination, and economic oppression.
  5. implement
    ensure observance of laws and rules
    This Government will do whatever must be done to see that the orders of the court are implemented--but I am hopeful that Governor Wallace will enable the local officials and communities to meet their responsibilities in this regard, as they are willing to do.
  6. boycott
    refusal to have commercial dealings with some organization
    Evers had attracted national attention back in the early 1960s when he led a store boycott in Jackson, Mississippi, and when he helped black student James Meredith enter the all-white University of Mississippi in 1962.
  7. acquit
    pronounce not guilty of criminal charges
    Byron De La Beckwith was arrested, tried, and acquitted by an all-white jury.
  8. stereotype
    a conventional or formulaic conception or image
    And the courage with which he confronted enraged mobs dissolved the stereotype of the grinning, submissive Uncle Tom.
  9. lethargy
    inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energy
    We made an indifferent and unconcerned nation rise from lethargy and subpoenaed its conscience to appear before the judgment seat of morality on the whole question of civil rights.
  10. chattel
    personal property, as opposed to real estate
    Even after his release from chattel slavery, the nation grew over him, submerging him.
  11. menial
    relating to unskilled work, especially domestic work
    Of employed Negroes, seventy-five percent hold menial jobs.
  12. crucible
    a vessel used for high temperature chemical reactions
    Life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel.
  13. buoyancy
    irrepressible liveliness and good spirit
    And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.
  14. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    With the passage of time, as well as a somewhat closed-off memory, I managed to live a perfunctory life.
  15. militant
    showing a fighting disposition
    Others became the opposite—outspoken and militant against the inhumane treatment of the city’s (and nation’s) black citizens.
  16. anemia
    a lack of vitality
    Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds.
  17. status quo
    the existing state of affairs
    In my teenage mind, I was starting to see that it had become the “American way” to kill those who rejected the status quo.
  18. inclement
    showing no mercy
    Dr. King later said Kennedy’s death was caused “by a morally inclement climate” that arose from “our constant attempt to cure the cancer of racial injustice with the gasoline of graduation; our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim.”
  19. momentum
    an impelling force or strength
    The deaths of the children followed by the loss of President Kennedy two months later gave birth to a tide of grief and anger—a surge of emotional momentum that helped ensure the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
  20. pomp
    cheap or pretentious or vain display
    With some pomp and circumstance, Wallace stood in front of the Crowell house and gave a brief speech to the crowd of black spectators, white reporters, photographers, and our neighbors.
  21. indict
    accuse formally of a crime
    Three years later, on February 27, 1967, the Neshoba County deputy sheriff and eighteen others (all Ku Klux Klan members) were indicted for the murders.
  22. filibuster
    obstruct deliberately by delaying
    Russell then organized eighteen Southern Democratic senators in filibustering this bill.
  23. advocate
    speak, plead, or argue in favor of
    That autumn, on October 14, 1964, I heard that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating a policy of nonviolence.
  24. snarl
    make an angry, sharp, or abrupt noise
    I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death.
  25. beleaguer
    surround so as to force to give up
    Dr. King ended his speech with both a question and a statement: “Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. . .
  26. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    I had heard bombs go off in my neighborhood, but it seemed unfathomable that it could happen in this safe haven.
  27. gargantuan
    of great mass; huge and bulky
    He has built gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the skies.
  28. literacy
    the ability to read and write
    On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, ending the practice of requiring literacy, knowledge, or character tests (administered solely to African-Americans) to keep them from registering to vote.
  29. reconciliation
    the reestablishment of cordial relations
    It is about love, it is about forgiveness, it is about reconciliation.
  30. eulogy
    a formal expression of praise for someone who has died
    People told me Dr. King’s eulogy for my slain friends had brought deep comfort to the girls’ families.
  31. disarm
    take away the weapons from; render harmless
    We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don’t know what to do.
  32. recant
    formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief
    After the sentencing, however, Ray recanted his guilty plea.
  33. disenfranchised
    deprived of the rights of citizenship, as the right to vote
    Like his brother John and Dr. King, Bobby had reached out to the poor and disenfranchised—especially inner-city, impoverished blacks.
  34. indifference
    apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactions
    The more I drank, the colder I became to Jerome. I treated him with indifference, and I stayed aloof and emotionally distant.
  35. fester
    generate pus
    My life was like an open, bleeding wound that had festered and would not heal.
Created on Tue Dec 02 20:49:44 EST 2014 (updated Wed Sep 05 14:30:46 EDT 2018)

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