She not only grew up in the segregated south, but was friends with one of the four girls who died in the Birmingham church blast of 1963. Rice was nine when her schoolmate 11 year-old Denise McNair was killed in the bombing of the Black Sixteenth Street Baptist Church-- and Rice could have happened to be there at the time quite easily and perished, too.
you are correct about her friend dying in the church bombings. Thanks for adding that.