The Biography

Maxine McNair, was the last living parent of any of the four Black girls killed in a 1963 Alabama church bombing. McNair's daughter, 11-year-old Denise McNair, was the youngest girl killed in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church, the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement. Also killed were three 14-year-olds: Addie Mae Collins, Carole Rosamond Robertson and Cynthia Dionne Wesley. Maxine McNair worked as a teacher for over three decades in Birmingham public schools. Her daughter, Lisa McNair, said she changed many lives through education and left a lasting legacy through the students she touched.