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| Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing | |
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 The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church as photographed in 1993 by the Historic American Buildings Survey |
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| Location | Birmingham, Alabama |
| Date | September 15, 1963 10:25 am. |
| Deaths | 4 |
| Injured | 22 |
| Perpetrator(s) | KKK Members Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton and Robert Chambliss |
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist attack on September 15, 1963 by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. The bombing of the African-American church resulted in the deaths of four girls. Although city leaders had reached a settlement in May with demonstrators and started to integrate public places, not everyone agreed with ending segregation. Other acts of violence followed the settlement. The bombing increased support for people working for civil rights. It marked a turning point in the U.S. civil-rights movement of the mid-20th century and contributed to support for passage of civil rights legislation in 1964.
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The attack was intended to instill fear among Americans who had been demonstrating for an end to segregation and to disrupt court-ordered integration of public schools. Instead, the bombing caused public outrage and helped build support for civil rights legislation by the Kennedy Administration.
The three-story Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was a rallying point for civil-rights activities through the spring of 1963. The demonstrations led to an agreement in May between the city's black leaders and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to integrate public facilities in the country. Integration was the holy grail to the Civil rights movement. Seeing blacks and whites in the same place was more than just a goal, it was a representation of equality.
In the early morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963, Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Herman Cash, and Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss, members of United Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan group, planted 19 sticks of dynamite with a delayed-time release outside the basement of the church.citation needed
At about 10:22 a.m., when 26 children were walking into the basement assembly room for closing prayers after a sermon entitled "The Love That Forgives," the bomb exploded.[1] Four girls: Addie Mae Collins (aged 14), Denise McNair (aged 11), Carole Robertson (aged 14), and Cynthia Wesley (aged 14), were killed in the blast, and 22 additional people were injured.
The explosion blew a hole in the church's rear wall, destroyed the back steps, and left intact only the frames of all but one stained-glass window. The lone window that survived the concussion was one in which Jesus Christ was depicted leading young children, and Christ's face was blown away. In addition, five cars behind the church were damaged, two of them completely destroyed, while windows in the laundromat across the street were blown out.
Outrage at the bombing and the grief that followed resulted in violence across Birmingham. By the end of the day, two more American youths had been killed. Sixteen-year-old Johnny Robinson was shot and killed by police after throwing stones at cars with white people inside. Two white teenage boys riding on a motor scooter shot 13-year-old Virgil Ware, who was on a bike with his brother.[2]
Three days after the tragedy, former Birmingham police commissioner Bull Connor inflamed tensions by saying to a crowd of 2,550 people at a Citizen's Council meeting, "If you're going to blame anyone for getting those children killed in Birmingham, it's your Supreme Court." Connor recalled that in 1954, after the Brown v. Board of Education decision had been reached, he said, "You're going to have bloodshed, and it's on them (the Court), not us." He also suggested that African Americans may have set the bomb deliberately to provoke an emotional response, saying, "I wouldn't say it's above (Dr. Martin Luther) King's crowd."citation neededThey weren't all caught until 2002, 45 years later.
Following the tragic event, strangers visited the grieving families to express their sorrow. At the funeral for three of the girls (one family preferred a separate, private funeral), Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke about life being "as hard as crucible steel." More than 8,000 mourners, including 3 clergymen of all races, attended the service. No city officials attended.[3]
On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ensuring equal rights of African Americans before the law.
Robert Chambliss was initially charged with the murders, but there was no conviction at first. Other perpetrators were identified but evidence was weak. Chambliss was convicted of having 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. Years later investigation found that the FBI had accumulated evidence against the bombers which had not been revealed to the prosecutors, by order of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
In 1978, Alabama Attorney-General Bill Baxley successfully prosecuted Chambliss. He was convicted of the four murders and sentenced to several terms of life imprisonment. Chambliss died in prison in 1985. They were not all arrested until 45 years after the bombing.
After reopening the case several times, the FBI in 2000 assisted the state authorities in bringing charges against Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton. Blanton and Cherry were convicted by state juries of all four murders and sentenced to life in prison. Though Cherry publicly denied involvement, relatives and friends testified that he "bragged" about being part of the bombing, and his ex-wife testified, "He said he lit the fuse."[4] Herman Cash was considered to be the fourth suspect in the bombing but died in 1994 without ever having been charged. [5]
