16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Analysis

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point during the Civil Rights Movement. Intended as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., the the attack created an uproar. The bombing took place in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, and it was an act of white supremacist terrorism performed by the Klu Klux Klan. Sticks of dynamite were placed beneath the front steps of the church and went off as four colored girls were innocently walking by. Morrison utilizes the historic event by incorporating it with Guitar’s job as a Seven Days member: “Four little colored girls had been blown out of a church, and his mission was to approximate as best he could a similar death of four little white girls come Sunday, since

While chasing Milkman to the south to watch him, Guitar mistakens Milkman helping a man lift a huge crate onto the weighing platform (the first unselfish thing he does for anyone) by him shipping the gold: “Milkman knew it sounded lame. It was the truth, but it sounded like a lie. A weak lie too. He also knew that in all his life, Guitar had never seen Milkman give anybody a hand, especially a stranger” (296). The misunderstanding fuels Guitar’s anger for Milkman and begins the aggressive conflict of their relationship. Before, their ideas and background were different, but now Guitar is furious with Milkman for something he did not do: “‘Because I ripped you off?’ ‘Because you ripped us off!’” (297). Milkman is unable to settle the misunderstandment, so Guitar continues to have disdain for Milkman and attempts at killing Milkman, but accidently shoots Pilate: “Even as he knelt over her, he knew there wouldn’t be another mistake; that the minute he stood up Guitar would try to blow his head off. He stood up” (337). All these events occur because of Guitar’s greed for the gold in order to finance his Seven Days