People everywhere died.". But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. [60] By the time of the announcement, Herman Cash had also died; however, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were still alive. By Rowe's own later admission, while serving as an FBI informant, he had shot and killed an unidentified Black man and had been an accessory to the murder of Viola Liuzzo.[131]. In this speech, Morgan lamented: "Who did it [the bombing]? [14] These attacks earned the city the nickname "Bombingham". Less than one minute later, the bomb exploded. Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation had concluded in 1965 that the bombing had been committed by four known KKK members and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry,[6] no prosecutions were conducted until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried by Attorney General of Alabama Bill Baxley and convicted of the first-degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Alabama Governor George Wallace was a leading foe of desegregation, and Birmingham had one of the strongest and most violent chapters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). On May 22, 2002, Cherry was convicted and sentenced to life, bringing a long-awaited victory to the friends and families of the four young victims. Birmingham Public Library. Ten-year-old Sarah Collins, who was also in the restroom at the time of the explosion, lost her right eye, and more than 20 other people were injured in the blast. Fred Shuttlesworth officiated instead. Following these closing arguments, the jury retired to consider their verdicts. (The plastic remnants were later lost by investigators. The bombing occurred days after black students began attending Birmingham city schools. Also, at that time, information from our surveillance was not admissible in court. Also present was Martin Luther King Jr. Last parent of a child killed in the Birmingham 16th Street - CNN Alabama sidesteps compensation for survivor of 1963 KKK Birmingham Chambliss had been indicted by a grand jury on September 24, 1977, charged with four counts of murder, for each dead child in the 1963 church bombing. A section of wire and remnants of red plastic were discovered there, which could have been part of a timing device. The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was examined by director Spike Lee in the Oscar-nominated documentary 4 Little Girls (1997). This appeal was dismissed on May 22, 1979. [36] She had 21 pieces of glass embedded in her face and was blinded in one eye. Although this march was met with fierce resistance and criticism, and 600 arrests were made on the first day alone, the Birmingham campaign and its Children's Crusade continued until May 5. The city of Birmingham, Alabama, was founded in 1871 and rapidly became the states most important industrial and commercial center. Johnson warned the jurors they would have to distinguish between evidence and proof. [75]:574, Chambliss appealed his conviction, as provided under the law, saying that much of the evidence presented at his trialincluding testimony relating to his activities within the KKKwas circumstantial; that the 14-year delay between the crime and his trial violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial; and the prosecution had deliberately used the delay to try to gain an advantage over Chambliss's defense attorneys. Although the credibility of Brogdon's testimony was called into dispute at the trial, forensic experts conceded that, although her account of the planting of the bombing differed from that which had been discussed in the previous perpetrators' trials, Brogdon's recollection of Cherry's account of the planting and subsequent lighting of the bomb could explain why no conclusive remnants of a timing device were discovered after the bombing. Both the church and the bereaved families received an estimated $23,000 in cash donations from members of the public. [96] They unsealed 9,000 pieces of evidence previously gathered by the FBI in the 1960s (many of these documents relating to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had not been made available to DA William Baxley in the 1970s). As late as the 1960s, however, it was also one of Americas most racially discriminatory and segregated cities. Several dozen people were present at the unveiling, presided over by state Senator. [99] In spite of a rebuttal argument by the defense, Judge Garrett ruled that some sections were too prejudicial, but also that portions of some audio recordings could be introduced as evidence. One of the defense witnesses was a retired chef named Eddie Mauldin, who was called to testify to discredit prosecution witnesses' statements that they had seen Blanton in the vicinity of the church before the bombing. The last convicted Birmingham church bomber has died in prison Bobby Frank Cherry was tried in Birmingham, Alabama, before Judge James Garrett, on May 6, 2002. One week before the bombing, Wallace granted an interview with The New York Times, in which he said he believed Alabama needed a "few first-class funerals" to stop racial integration. [67]), Although both Blanton and Cherry denied their involvement in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, until his death in 1985, Robert Chambliss repeatedly insisted that the bombing had been committed by Gary Thomas Rowe Jr. Rowe had been encouraged to join the Klan by acquaintances in 1960. Blanton was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The last convicted Birmingham church bomber has died in prison On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into effect the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The bells of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., tolled Monday in remembrance of the four girls who were killed in a bombing at the church 40 years ago. Four Black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham church bombing - History [103], The most crucial piece of evidence presented at Blanton's trial was an audio recording secretly taped by the FBI in June 1964, in which Blanton was recorded discussing his involvement in the bombing with his wife, who can be heard accusing her husband of conducting an affair with a woman named Waylen Vaughn two nights before the bombing. It is a sound that I will never forget, that will forever reverberate in my ears. He became a paid FBI informant in 1961. Pallbearers load a coffin into a hearse at a funeral for victims of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham, Alabama, late September, 1963. The church was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and Fred Shuttlesworth, for organizing and educating marchers. Despite repeated demands that the perpetrators be brought to justice, the first trial in the case was not held until 1977, when former clan member Robert E. Chambliss was convicted of murder (Chambliss, who continued to maintain his innocence, died in prison in 1985). [77] But at a pre-trial hearing on October 18,[78] Judge Wallace Gibson ruled that the defendant would be tried upon one count of murderthat of Carol Denise McNair[78]and that the remaining three counts of murder would remain, but that he would not be charged in relation to these three deaths. 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: Photos of the tragedy The service honoring Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley and two young boys killed shortly after the bombing, Johnny Robinson Jr. and Virgil Ware, recognized Birmingham as the center of the Civil Rights movement and emphasized that the march to justice and equality of all people is not over. The other victims were Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson. Baxley had been a student at the University of Alabama when he heard about the bombing in 1963, and later recollected: "I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what."[72]. Most crucially, Blanton can also be heard saying that he was not with Miss Vaughn but, two nights before the bombing, was at a meeting with other Klansmen on a bridge above the Cahaba River. Every last one of us is condemned for that crime and the bombing before it and a decade ago. U.S. government destroying the dollars value through inflation. Corrections? The force crumbled a stone-and-masonry wall 30 inches thick and left a crater more than 2 feet deep.Retired FBI bomb specialist Charles Killion testified that agents never determined what kind of explosive was used or how the bomb was triggered. Flying debris nearly demolishes vehicles and leaves cars dotted with large holes. The NAACP questioned the speed of the investigation and whether all resources available were being utilized. here for reprint permission. (J. Edgar Hoover, then-head of the FBI, disapproved of the civil rights movement; he died in 1972.). Relatives of the four victims openly wept in relief. [52] Reportedly, Carole's mother, Alpha, had expressly requested that her daughter be buried separately from the other victims. The day following the bombing, a young white lawyer named Charles Morgan Jr. addressed a meeting of businessmen, condemning the acquiescence of white people in Birmingham toward the oppression of Blacks. terrorist attack, Birmingham, Alabama, United States [1963]. Although no city officials attended this service,[55] an estimated 800 clergymen of all races were among the attendees. [100] It concluded that vascular dementia had impaired his mind, therefore making Cherry mentally incompetent to stand trial or assist in his own defense.[101]. According to Vann's later testimony, Chambliss was standing "looking down toward the church, like a firebug watching his fire". Demonstrators present were given instructions to march to downtown Birmingham and discuss with the mayor their concerns about racial segregation in the city, and to integrate buildings and businesses currently segregated. He was 82 years old. Killion agreed with Mr. Johnsons suggestion that a bomb could have been tossed from a passing car rather than placed under an exterior stairway, as prosecutors suggested in a previous trial.Mr. The bomb injured at least 20 people and killed four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. )[22]:63. Alabama's governor apologizes to Sarah Collins Rudolph - CNN Birmingham church bombing case was FBI triumph T hursday marked the 59th anniversary of white supremacists' deadly bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. Updates? I did not see it happen, but I heard it happen and I felt it happen, just a few blocks away at my father's church. When thousands of Black protesters assembled at the crime scene, Wallace sent hundreds of police and state troopers to the area to break up the crowd. Blanton was convicted in 2001 and Cherry in 2002; both received life sentences (Cherry died in 2004, Blanton in 2020). Maxine McNair died on Sunday, Birmingham Mayor Randall . In the early morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963, four members of the United Klans of AmericaThomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Robert Edward Chambliss,[19] Bobby Frank Cherry, and (allegedly) Herman Frank Cashplanted a minimum of 15 sticks[20] of dynamite with a time delay under the steps of the church, close to the basement. Victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. No one ever really has known and no one will until this city becomes part of the United States. In October 1963, Chambliss was cleared of the murder charge and received a six-month jail sentence and a $100 fine for the dynamite. Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer was a research editor at Encyclopdia Britannica. Sarah Collins Rudolph was the fifth girl and survived. 16th Street Baptist Church interior after the bombing . He and two acquaintances, John Hall and Charles Cagle, were each convicted in state court upon a charge of illegally possessing and transporting dynamite on October 8. [68] Later the same year, J. Edgar Hoover formally blocked any impending federal prosecutions against the suspects,[69] and refused to disclose any evidence his agents had obtained with state or federal prosecutors.[70]. (Tom Self/ Birmingham News), A newspaper clipping shows police officers in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963. The crime was calculated, not random. In the aftermath of the bombing, thousands of angry Black protesters gathered at the scene of the bombing. Chambliss v. State :: 1979 :: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals In the weeks following the September 4 integration of public schools, three additional bombs were detonated in Birmingham. Described by Martin Luther King Jr. as "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity,"[5] the explosion at the church killed four girls and injured between 14 and 22 other people. )[16], These demonstrations and the concessions from city leaders to the majority of demonstrators' demands were met with fierce resistance by other whites in Birmingham. I haven't done anything! The Birmingham News. Thomas told those gathered "The greatest tribute you can pay to Carole is to be calm, be loving, be kind, be innocent. Homemade bombs planted by white supremacists in homes and churches became so commonplace that the city was sometimes known as Bombingham. Local African American churches such as the 16th Street Baptist Church were fundamental in the organization of much of the protest activity. [38] Another sister of Addie Mae Collins, 16-year-old Junie Collins, would later recall that shortly before the explosion, she had been sitting in the basement of the church reading the Bible and had observed Addie Mae Collins tying the dress sash of Carol Denise McNair before she returned upstairs to the ground floor of the church. Although Cash is known to have passed a polygraph test in which he was questioned as to his potential involvement in the bombing, The Reverend John Cross, who had been the pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church at the time of the 1963 bombing, died of natural causes on November 15, 2007. [106] The defense portrayed the audiotapes introduced into evidence as the statements of "two rednecks driving around, drinking" and making false, ego-inflating claims to one another. In his opening statement for the prosecution, Don Cochran presented his case: that the evidence would show that Cherry had participated in a conspiracy to commit the bombing and conceal evidence linking him to the crime and that he had later gloated over the deaths of the victims. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), Four Black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham church bombing, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/four-black-schoolgirls-killed-in-birmingham, The Four Seasons earn their first #1 hit with Sherry, Tanks introduced into warfare at the Somme, Muhammad Ali wins world heavyweight championship, First trenches are dug on the Western Front, South Vietnamese forces retake Quang Tri City, The first transcontinental mail service to San Francisco begins, Famous Marilyn Monroe skirt scene filmed, A Bible school instructor abducts a teenage girl. Both named individuals were charged with four counts of first-degree murder, and four counts of universal malice. The Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabamaa church with a predominantly Black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Life is hard. AP While the FBI concluded in 1965 that the. Yet the men. In attendance were 1,600 people. Melanie Peeples reports. The Aftermath. Officially, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing remained unsolved until after William Baxley was elected Attorney General of Alabama in January 1971. Seven witnesses testified on behalf of the prosecution, and two for the defense. [126] Cherry remained stoic as the sentence was read aloud. The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15 was the third bombing in 11 days, after a federal court order had come down mandating the integration of Alabamas school system. His testimony was restricted to the areas of the recordings permitted into evidence. In his closing argument for the prosecution, Don Cochran said the victims' "Youth Sunday [sermon] never happened because it was destroyed by this defendant's hate. On May 15,[123] Cross testified that prior to the explosion, she and the four girls killed had each attended a Youth Day Sunday School lesson in which the theme taught was how to react to a physical injustice. Sept. 19, 2020 Even though it has been more than 50 years since Ku Klux Klansmen bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sarah Collins Rudolph said remnants from the blast. Governor Wallace offered an additional $5,000 on behalf of the state of Alabama. [17], In response to the church bombing, described by the Mayor of Birmingham, Albert Boutwell, as "just sickening", the Attorney General dispatched 25 FBI agents, including explosives experts, to Birmingham to conduct a thorough forensic investigation. The Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabamaa church with a. Later that day, 13-year-old Virgil Ware, riding on the handlebars of a bicycle in Docena, was shot by two young white men. [98] The following day, both men surrendered to police. Relatives of the slain girls, prosecutor Doug Jones, Alabama Chief Deputy Attorney General Alice Martin, and Jefferson County district attorney Brandon Falls each spoke at the hearing to oppose Blanton's parole. In Birmingham, attorney Charles Morgan, Jr. spoke before the Birmingham Young Men's Business Club, identifying the people responsible for the attack. In 1968, the FBI formally closed their investigation into the bombing without filing charges against any of their named suspects. She was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Birmingham, but her body has been. Baxley acknowledged that typical juries in 1960s Alabama would have likely leaned in favor of both defendants, even if these recordings had been presented as evidence,[128] but said that he could have prosecuted Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry in 1977 if he had been granted access to these tapes. [94][95], In 1995, ten years after Chambliss died, the FBI reopened their investigation into the church bombing. Cross testified that each girl present had been taught to contemplate how Jesus would react to affliction or injustice, and they were asked to learn to consider, "What Would Jesus Do? [107], The trial lasted for one week. A fifth girl who had been with them, Sarah Collins (the younger sister of Addie Mae Collins), lost her right eye in the explosion, and several other people were injured. Two young Black men were killed that night, one by police and another by racist thugs. Five children were in the basement at the time of the explosion,[23] in a restroom close to the stairwell, changing into choir robes[24] in preparation for a sermon entitled "A Rock That Will Not Roll". 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, terrorist attack in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, on the predominantly African American 16th Street Baptist Church by local members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). 35. These deliberations continued until the following day. That bomb took the lives of four young girls, including my friend and playmate [Carol] Denise McNair. Cook testified that Chambliss had acknowledged his guilt regarding his 1963 arrest for possession of dynamite, but that he (Chambliss) was insistent he had given the dynamite to Rowe before the bombing. Precisely because of its reputation as a stronghold for white supremacy, civil rights activists made Birmingham a major focus of their efforts to desegregate the Deep South. The Birmingham campaign, the March on Washington in August, the September bombing of the 16th Street Baptist church, and the November assassination of John F. Kennedyan ardent supporter of the civil rights cause who had proposed a Civil Rights Act of 1963 on national television[71]increased worldwide awareness of and sympathy toward the civil rights cause in the United States. 16th Street Baptist Church bombing - Wikipedia [11] Their demands included that public amenities such as lunch counters and parks be desegregated, the criminal charges against demonstrators and protestors should be removed, and an end to overt discrimination with regards to employment opportunities. The four girls between the ages of 11 and 14 became innocent victims and emblems of the racist hatred. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder. Meanwhile, public outrage over the bombing continued to grow, drawing international attention to Birmingham.
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