), One individual who went to the scene to help search for survivors, Charles Vann, later recollected that he had observed a solitary white man whom he recognized as Robert Edward Chambliss (a known member of the Ku Klux Klan) standing alone and motionless at a barricade. "[112], Blanton was sentenced to life imprisonment. "[124] Johnson reiterated that there was no hard evidence linking Cherry to the bombing, but only evidence attesting to his racist beliefs dating from that era, adding that the family members who had testified against him were all estranged and therefore should be considered unreliable witnesses. 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. [7] Herman Cash died in 1994, and was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Beneath piles of debris in the church basement, the dead bodies of four girlsAddie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson, all age 14, and Denise McNair (age 11)were discovered. [46] When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. The most seriously injured survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Sarah Jean Collins, remained hospitalized for more than two months, Within two days of the church bombing, Petts had contacted then-pastor of the church, the Reverend John Cross, announcing he had launched a fundraising campaign to create this artwork via an appeal conducted through the, John Petts died in 1991 at the age of 77. By 1963, homemade bombs set off in Birmingham's Black homes and churches were such common occurrences that the city had earned the nickname "Bombingham.". An unidentified man digs grave for one of the four victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham, Alabama, late September 1963. May 10, 2019 at 11:37 p.m. EDT. Shortly thereafter, she had heard "the most horrible noise", before being struck on the head by debris. 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. [8], On Thursday, May 2, more than 1,000 students, some reportedly as young as eight, opted to leave school and gather at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Seven witnesses testified on behalf of the prosecution, and two for the defense. In 1977, Alabama Attorney General Bob Baxley reopened the investigation and Klan leader Robert E. Chambliss was brought to trial for the bombings and convicted of murder. [29] The explosion was so intense that one of the girls' bodies was decapitated and so badly mutilated that her body could be identified only through her clothing and a ring. Although informative to the FBI, Rowe actively participated in violence against both Black and white civil rights activists. 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. Officially, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing remained unsolved until after William Baxley was elected Attorney General of Alabama in January 1971. The four girls between the ages of 11 and 14 became innocent victims and emblems of the racist hatred. 35. [50]:272, The service for Carole Rosamond Robertson was held at St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church. "[17][51], Carole Rosamond Robertson was laid to rest in a private family funeral held on September 17, 1963. I didn't bomb that church. "[9] Birmingham's Commissioner of Public Safety, Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor,[10] led the effort in enforcing racial segregation in the city through the use of violent tactics. Continuing to maintain his innocence, Chambliss died in prison in 1985. [28], Four girlsAddie Mae Collins (age 14, born April 18, 1949), Carol Denise McNair (age 11, born November 17, 1951), Carole Rosamond Robertson (age 14, born April 24, 1949), and Cynthia Dionne Wesley (age 14, born April 30, 1949)were killed in the attack. Many of the same audiotapes presented in Blanton's trial were also introduced into evidence in the trial of Bobby Cherry. [64], The FBI encountered difficulties in their initial investigation into the bombing. Wallace and his advisers have been sowing the seeds of this disaster," the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law stated. Farrell Griswold, pastor of Minor Heights Baptist, told the crowd. Original caption: NEWS FILE/TOM SELF A stained glass window bears testament to a bomb's damage; Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, September 15, 1963. [115] Blanton was confined in a one-man cell under tight security. "I will never stop crying thinking about it," said Cross, who was 13 at the . The call was answered by the acting Sunday School secretary, a 14-year-old girl named Carolyn Maull. Original caption: Bystanders react to the destruction in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963. [31] The pastor of the church, the Reverend John Cross, recollected in 2001 that the girls' bodies were found "stacked on top of each other, clung together". Omissions? HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. [133], I remembered the bombing of that Sunday School at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. 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. Both named individuals were charged with four counts of first-degree murder, and four counts of universal malice. [99]:162, The state prosecution had originally intended to try both defendants together; however, the trial of Bobby Cherry was delayed due to the findings of a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder. Fred Shuttlesworth. With its large African American congregation, the 16th Street Baptist Church served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., who once called Birmingham a symbol of hardcore resistance to integration. Alabamas governor, George Wallace, made preserving racial segregation one of the central goals of his administration, and Birmingham had one of the most violent and lawless chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. Jones repeated the most damning statements Blanton had made in these recordings, before pointing at Blanton and stating: "That is a confession out of this man's mouth. (J. Edgar Hoover, then-head of the FBI, disapproved of the civil rights movement; he died in 1972.). 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). September 15, 1963 - A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four African-American girls during church services. Maxine McNair's 11-year-old daughter, Denise McNair, was the youngest of the four Black girls killed in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. ), Both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury on May 1. "The answer should be, "We all did it." He seldom spoke of his involvement in the bombing, shunned social activity and rarely received visitors. At approximately 10:22a.m., an anonymous man phoned the 16th Street Baptist Church. Victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. "[104], In addition to calling attention to flaws in the prosecution's case, the defense exposed inconsistencies in the memories of some prosecution witnesses who had testified. The Board of Pardons and Paroles debated for less than 90 seconds before denying parole to Blanton. He said that the sections introduced as evidence were of poor audio quality, resulting in the prosecution presenting text transcripts of questionable accuracy to the jury. Long-delayed trial of former Ku Klux Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr in fatal 1963 bombing of black Birmingham, Ala, church opens; another of 4 original suspects, Robert Chambliss, was convicted in . [132] Nonetheless, a 1979 investigation cleared Rowe of any involvement in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Baxley noted that the day of the closing argument fell upon what would have been Carol Denise McNair's 26th birthday and that she would have likely been a mother by this date. This appeal was dismissed on May 22, 1979. After Baxley requested access to the original FBI files on the case, he learned that evidence accumulated by the FBI against the named suspects between 1963 and 1965 had not been revealed to the local prosecutors in Birmingham. Yet the men. The current state death penalty law applied only to crimes committed after its passage. Cochran also reminded the jury of a secretly obtained FBI recording, which had earlier been introduced into evidence, in which Cherry had told his first wife, Jean, that he and other Klansmen had constructed the bomb within the premises of business the Friday before the bombing. )[22]:63. 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]. In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not become bitter We must not lose faith in our white brothers. [121] (A fishing float attached to a section of wire, which may have been part of a timing device, was found 20 feet (6.1m) from the explosion crater[87] following the bombing. [17] Other acts of violence followed the settlement, and several staunch Klansmen were known to have expressed frustration at what they saw as a lack of effective resistance to integration.[18]. Flying debris nearly demolishes vehicles and leaves cars dotted with large holes. He became a paid FBI informant in 1961. 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 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the Civil Rights movement and contributed to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 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. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Now the Jury Must Decide", "Bobby Frank Cherry, 74, Klansman in Bombing, Dies", "Gary T. Rowe Jr., 64, Who Informed on Klan In Civil Rights Killing, Is Dead", "Long Fight Predicted In Case Against Rowe", "Paid FBI Informer Tells Of Murder, Silence", "Memorial Dedicated For Church Bombing Victims On Anniversary", "Siblings of the bombing: Remembering Birmingham church blast 50 years on", "Girl Living in Darkness After Church Bombing", "Alabama church bombing victims honoured by Welsh window", "American civil rights: the Welsh connection", "Death spares scrutiny of Cash in bomb probe", "Pastor Was At Church When Bomb Killed Four", United States Government Publishing Office, "A History of American Protest: When Nina Simone Sang what Everyone was Thinking", "American Guernica, LKM Music - Hal Leonard Online", "Still Reeling From the Day Death Came to Birmingham", "Television Review: A Father's Guilt; A Son's Wrenching Decision", "That Which Might Have Been, Birmingham 1963 - Phoenix, Arizona - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com", "Memorial project for 16th Street Baptist Church bombing raises $200,000 of $250,000 goal", "Four Spirits unveiled across from Sixteenth Street Baptist Church", "Four Spirits Statue, Memorial to 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Victims, Unveiled", Details of Robert Chambliss's 1979 appeal against his conviction, John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights, Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)", List of lynching victims in the United States, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, African American founding fathers of the United States, Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing&oldid=1150872665, African-American history in Birmingham, Alabama, Attacks on religious buildings and structures in the United States, Massacres in religious buildings and structures, Racially motivated violence against African Americans, September 1963 events in the United States, Terrorist incidents in the United States in 1963, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2023, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Many of the civil rights protest marches that took place in Birmingham during the 1960s began at the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which had long been a significant religious center for the citys Black population and a routine meeting place for civil rights organizers like King. Although never formally named as one of the conspirators by the FBI, Rowe's record of deception on the polygraph tests leaves open the possibility that Chambliss's claims may have held a degree of truth. Although this donation was accepted,[50]:274 Martin Luther King Jr. is known to have sent Wallace a telegram saying, "the blood of four little children is on your hands. It was later revealed that the FBI had information concerning the identity of the bombers by 1965 and did nothing. In the weeks following the September 4 integration of public schools, three additional bombs were detonated in Birmingham. The four individuals named in the FBI report were Blanton, Cash, Chambliss, and Cherry. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Such a lack of evidence isnt unusual in powerful explosions, he said, because bomb components often are destroyed.However, defense attorney Mickey Johnson hammered at the lack of evidence. Corrections? [11] The work these Civil Rights activists were engaged in within Birmingham was crucial to the movement as the Birmingham campaign was seen as guidance for other cities in the South with regards to rising against segregation and racism. "[109], Defense attorney John Robbins reminded the jury in his closing argument that his client was an admitted segregationist and a "loudmouth", but that was all that could be proven. [60] By the time of the announcement, Herman Cash had also died; however, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were still alive. All Rights Reserved. 1963 terrorist attack in Birmingham, Alabama, The four girls killed in the bombing (clockwise from top left) Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11), Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education, Armstrong v. Birmingham Board of Education, Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association, University of Alabama desegregation crisis, Tuskegee High School desegregation crisis, 1963 Birmingham campaign's Children's Crusade, Mass racial violence in the United States, Racial segregation of churches in the United States, Timeline of terrorist attacks in the United States, "How Much Has Changed Since the Birmingham Church Bombing? Relatives of the four victims openly wept in relief. "Violence is not in our plans," the Rev. Johnson urged the jury against convicting his client by association. Less than one minute later, the bomb exploded. A 16-year-old white youth named Larry Sims fired the gun (given to him by another youth named Michael Farley) at Ware, who was sitting on the handlebars of a bicycle ridden by his brother. In a 1987 interview focusing upon his recollections of the bombing, Petts recollected: "Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the deaths of those children." These instructions were relayed to the crowd present by a single youth with a bullhorn. I told the truth. The Birmingham News reported it was the 41st bombing in the city in the past 16 years. He also noted that Cherry had initially been linked to the bombing by the FBI via an informant who had claimed, fifteen months after the bombing, that she had seen Cherry place the bomb at the church shortly before the bombing. [37] In her later recollections of the bombing, Collins would recall that in the moments immediately before the explosion, she had watched her sister, Addie, tying her dress sash. Other witnesses obtained identified Chambliss as the individual who had placed the bomb beneath the church. Of the nearly 200 congregants inside, attending Sunday school classes and preparing for the 11 a.m. service, about 22 were injured. KKK members had routinely called in bomb threats intended to disrupt civil rights meetings as well as services at the church. She is the daughter of the Reverend John Cross and was aged 13 in 1963. Crucial testimony at Cherry's trial was delivered by his former wife, Willadean Brogdon, who had married Cherry in 1970. Blanton was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. ", 16th Street Baptist pastor John Cross said the bomber "did not only bomb the 16th Street Baptist Church, did not only kill these lovely, innocent girls, but somehow the world was shaken. [127], When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say before sentence was imposed, Cherry motioned to the prosecutors and stated: "This whole bunch lied through this thing [the trial]. [93] In the years since his incarceration, Chambliss had been confined to a solitary cell to protect him from attacks by fellow inmates. Melanie Peeples reports. (Thomas Blanton had owned a Chevrolet in 1963;[108] neither Chambliss, Cash nor Cherry had owned such a vehicle. In the film, Lee interviews witnesses to the bombing and family members of the victims while at the same time exploring the backdrop of segregation and white harassment that were central to the time period. Denise, was among four girls killed in the bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church nearly 60 years ago. Through these rulings, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. FILE - Sarah Collins Rudolph and her husband, George Rudolph, talk in their . 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. "It was just a matter of time," said Pastor John H. Cross of the bombing. "This bombing of children was a dastardly act.". The Robertsons made funeral arrangements before learning that the other families were planning a combined service with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, delivering the eulogy. "Wow. The community, the state and the nation were stunned and shocked by this dastardly act. 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. [88] He was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder. Although Baxley knew he had insufficient evidence to charge Blanton at this stage, he intended the subpoena to frighten Blanton into confessing his involvement and negotiating a plea deal to turn state evidence against his co-conspirators. Rev. According to Vann's later testimony, Chambliss was standing "looking down toward the church, like a firebug watching his fire". Robbins also discredited the testimony of FBI agent William Fleming, who had earlier testified as to a government witness claiming he had seen Blanton in the vicinity of the church shortly before the bombing. In attendance were 1,600 people. Throughout the civil rights movement, Birmingham was a major site of protests, marches, and sit-ins that were often met with police brutality and violence from white citizens.

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