The recent shooting - we might call it a terrorist attack - in the church in Charleston, South Carolina, calls to mind the Ku Klux Klan's bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 that killed four African-American girls. Spike Lee's documentary "4 Little Girls" looks at that heartless act and the events surrounding it. One of the most eye-opening scenes is the interview with George Wallace, who was Alabama's white supremacist governor at the time of the bombing (he later changed his views). It was from the documentary that I learned about Bull Connor, one of the most vile segregationists of all (a character in the Coen Brothers' remake of "The Ladykillers" referenced him).
It's important to remember that this brutal deed - another that we might call an act of domestic terrorism - is one of the most important events in our country's history. Racism persists even today. Indeed, Dylann Roof and people like him think that Barack Obama's presidency means that "those other people" are taking over our country.
All in all, it's a heartbreaking story. "4 Little Girls" and "When the Levees Broke" (about Hurricane Katrina) are probably the Spike Lee works that are most important to see. We must never forget what happened.
It's important to remember that this brutal deed - another that we might call an act of domestic terrorism - is one of the most important events in our country's history. Racism persists even today. Indeed, Dylann Roof and people like him think that Barack Obama's presidency means that "those other people" are taking over our country.
All in all, it's a heartbreaking story. "4 Little Girls" and "When the Levees Broke" (about Hurricane Katrina) are probably the Spike Lee works that are most important to see. We must never forget what happened.