While never detracting from the personal pain and suffering caused by their deaths, Lee uses this instance of racial violence to explore the cultural climate of Birmingham at the time, and in so doing, provides a history lesson on the civil rights movement from those who lived it. Perhaps Lee's greatest accomplishment in the film is his ability to maintain this balance between serious journalism and incredible human intimacy; he explores the larger issues of racism and hate without ever losing sight of the individuals who have paid so dearly in the struggle to wipe them out. Lee himself remains notably quiet, never allowing his controversial persona to distract from the important subject matter, his voice hesitantly intruding only to ask a particularly pointed question. The story more than speaks for itself.
Martin Luther King, Jr., once referred to Birmingham, AL, as "the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States," and the film quickly reveals that this is no exaggeration. While other parts of the country were taking slow, hesitant steps toward integration, the local civil rights movement in Birmingham had struggled to even gain the most superficial token of equal rights. This unjust treatment caused more than just practical inconvenience, it struck a blow to the pride of an entire people, as damaging as any physical violence that had been perpetrated against them. In a film depicting the deaths of innocent children, one of the most heartbreaking moments comes when the father of Denise McNair describes his feelings of shame and anger when he is forced to deny his daughter a sandwich from a "Whites Only" diner. A look of pain crosses his face as he describes her stunned reaction, "Very strange, very confused, as if a whole world of betrayal had fallen on her at that moment."
