Chris and Maxine McNair

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A black-and-white photograph of Chris and Maxine McNair, by Platon. The McNair’s are depicted holding each other in front of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; the site where their daughter, Carol Denise McNair, was killed during the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing that took place on September 15, 1963. The photograph’s perspective is from an angle that looks up at the couple from about knee level. Chris McNair stands at the center left. Maxine stands on his proper left side. Her eyes are closed ,and face is turned, resting her head on his proper left shoulder. Her proper left hand is resting on the side of her husband’s face and his proper right hand is resting on her proper left forearm. Chris McNair is wearing a black suit with thin, white pinstripes, a white dress shirt, and a black tie with small white polka dots.

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