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4 Little Girls

  • 19971997
  • TV-14TV-14
  • 1h 42m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
3.4K
YOUR RATING
4 Little Girls (1997)
DocumentaryHistory
A documentary of the notorious racial terrorist bombing of an African American church during the Civil Rights Movement.A documentary of the notorious racial terrorist bombing of an African American church during the Civil Rights Movement.A documentary of the notorious racial terrorist bombing of an African American church during the Civil Rights Movement.
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
3.4K
YOUR RATING
    • Spike Lee
  • Stars
    • Maxine McNair
    • Walter Cronkite
    • Chris McNair
    • Spike Lee
  • Stars
    • Maxine McNair
    • Walter Cronkite
    • Chris McNair
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 39User reviews
    • 17Critic reviews
    • 88Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar

    Photos

    4 Little Girls (1997)
    4 Little Girls (1997)
    4 Little Girls (1997)
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    Top cast

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    Maxine McNair
    • Self - Mother of Denise McNair
    Walter Cronkite
    Walter Cronkite
    • Self - Special Correspondent CBS News
    Chris McNair
    • Self - Father of Denise McNair
    Fred Lee Shuttlesworth
    • Self - Pres. of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
    Helen Pegues
    • Self - Denise's Aunt
    Queen Nunn
    • Self - Neighbor of Denise McNair
    Arthur Hanes Jr.
    • Self - Defense Attorney for Bob Chambliss
    Howell Raines
    Howell Raines
    • Self - New York Times Editor
    Harold McNair
    • Self - Denise's Uncle
    Carole C. Smitherman
    • Self - Denise's Childhood Friend
    • (as Carole C. Smitherman Esq.)
    Wamo Reed Robertson
    • Self - Carole's Aunt
    Dianne Braddock
    • Self - Carole's Sister
    Carolyn Lee Brown
    • Self - Carole's Childhood Friend
    Alpha Robertson
    • Self - Mother of Carole Robertson
    Wyatt Tee Walker
    • Self - Former Executive Director of SCLC
    Florence Terrell
    • Self - School Teacher
    Gwendolyn White
    • Self - School Teacher
    Doris Lockhart
    • Self - Neighbor of Cynthia Wesley
      • Spike Lee
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Denise McNair was a friend and classmate of future Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
    • Quotes

      Howell Raines: A day in 1957, in the afternoon, the evening newscast, there's a piece of film of a gang of white men beating Fred Shuttlesworth, in the street outside of Phillips high school where he'd taken his children. With chains they beat him to the ground. And the reason it was riveting for me, I was fourteen years old, was that the police said they couldn't find the men who did it. And I recognized one of the men. I knew who he was. I'd seen him at Jack Cash's barbecue and I knew the police hung out at Jack Cash's barbecue and I knew they were lying.

    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Contact/This World, Then the Fireworks/A Simple Wish/4 Little Girls/The Big Sleep/Shall We Dance? (1997)
    • Soundtracks
      Birmingham Sunday
      Written by Richard Farina

      Used by permission of Songs of PolyGram International Inc.

      Performed by Joan Baez

      Courtesy of Vanguard Records/A Welk Music Group Co.

      By arrangement with Warner Special Products

    User reviews39

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Powerful documentary
    I was not born when the Birmingham church bombing occurred. I first read about it when I was 10 or 11 in a Reader's Digest story and for some reason the names of the girls stuck in my mind all these years. I saw this on HBO and it is one of the only films that continued to leave an emotional impression on me long after it was over. Especially the haunting last image of Denise McNair happily holding her beloved (white) doll, and the overwhelming sense that someone who should be in the world today, is not with us. The interviews with family and friends of the girls are what makes this documentary special. Also it does a great job of educating people about Birmingham's civil rights history up to the bombing and just how it took an appalling act of violence to wake up white America. Let's hope it never takes this sort of crime again to make us wake up to other simmering injustices.
    helpful•2
    0
    • EllenBE
    • Mar 17, 2001

    Details

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    • Release date
      • July 9, 1997 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Production companies
      • 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks
      • Home Box Office (HBO)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 42 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby

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