Lisa McNair was born in the shadow of death. She arrived to Maxine and Chris McNair on September 19, 1964, one year and four days after Klansmen blew a hole in their church and an even bigger one in their lives.
On a mild September Sunday, those bombers—enraged by the prospect of desegregation and whipped into a frenzy by local and state politicians—left the explosive equivalent of about 10 sticks of dynamite outside that church, below and just to the right of a stained glass window depicting Jesus holding a shepherd’s crook.
On the other side of that window, the Rev. John H. Cross previewed the morning’s sermon, entitled “A Love That Forgives,” to a Sunday school class…