Immediately after the blast, church members. Jones reviewed Blanton's extensive history with the Ku Klux Klan, before referring to the audio recordings presented earlier in the trial. [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. (The plastic remnants were later lost by investigators. A coffin is loaded into a hearse at a funeral for the girls. 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? the 16th street baptist church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism which occurred at the african american 16th street baptist church in birmingham, alabama, on sunday,. Spanning from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, Spain is a lan. Ku Klux Klan (alleged) The Birmingham riot of 1963 was a civil disorder and riot in Birmingham, Alabama, that was provoked by bombings on the night of May 11, 1963. ic Birmingham received some decent accumulation in some parts. Mauldin testified on April 30 that he had observed two men in a Rambler station wagon adorned with a Confederate flag repeatedly drive past the church immediately before the blast, and that, seconds after the bomb had exploded, the car had "burned rubber" as it drove away. In his rebuttal closing argument, defense attorney Art Hanes Jr. attacked the evidence presented by the prosecution as being purely circumstantial,[85] adding that, despite the existence of similar circumstantial evidence, Chambliss had not been prosecuted in 1963 of the church bombing. Kay Ivey. )[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. Following the bombing, the 16th Street Baptist Church remained closed for over eight months, as assessments and, later, repairs were conducted upon the property. At times as hard as crucible steel, but, today, you do not walk alone. Baxley also gathered evidence proving Chambliss had purchased dynamite from a store in Jefferson County less than two weeks before the bomb was planted,[72] upon the pretext the dynamite was to be used to clear land the KKK had purchased near Highway 101. [86] He was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder. At that point, Black Americans were forced to read more, The Orangeburg Massacre occurred on the night of February 8, 1968, when a civil rights protest at South Carolina State University (SC State) turned deadly after highway patrolmen opened fire on about 200 unarmed black student protestors. "[43], Two more black youths, Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware, were shot to death in Birmingham within seven hours of the Sunday morning bombing. KKK members had routinely called in bomb threats intended to disrupt civil rights meetings as well as services at the church. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. In that important sense, the bombings impact was exactly the opposite of what its perpetrators had intended. The 16th Street Baptist Church served as a rallying point during the civil rights movement. The citys police commissioner, Eugene Bull Connor, was notorious for his willingness to use brutality in combating radical demonstrators, union members and any Black citizens. Did you encounter any technical issues? It was meant to suck the hope out of young lives, bury their aspirations, and ensure that old fears would be propelled forward into the next generation. [111][112] He was incarcerated at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama. The Aftermath. [108], The jury deliberated for two and a half hours before returning with a verdict finding Thomas Edwin Blanton guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. The day of the bombing, the church was full of its members as well as children who were attending Sunday school. Robinson died before reaching the hospital. In the aftermath of the bombing, thousands of angry Black protesters gathered at the scene of the bombing. Mourners embrace at the funeral. It was September 15,1963 11:00 AM at The 16th Street Baptist Church (United States National Park Service). September 15, 2013, marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing. From left, 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins and Cynthia Wesley were killed while attending Sunday services. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. was brought to trial in Birmingham, Alabama, before Judge James Garrett on April 24, 2001. These instructions were relayed to the crowd present by a single youth with a bullhorn. 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. In the closing argument for the defense, attorney Mickey Johnson argued that Cherry had nothing to do with the bombing, and reminded the jurors that his client was not on trial for his beliefs, stating: "It seems like more time has been spent here throwing around the n-word than proving what happened in September 1963. NBC Universal, Inc. Four girls were killed when a bomb exploded at an Alabama church in 1963. Also, at that time, information from our surveillance was not admissible in court. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! appreciated. The church's pastor, the Reverend John Cross Jr., attempted to placate the crowd by loudly reciting the 23rd Psalm through a bullhorn. 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. [17], Hundreds of individuals, some of them lightly wounded, converged on the church to search the debris for survivors as police erected barricades around the church and several outraged men scuffled with police. 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. A policeman and a neighbor had each testified that Chambliss was at the home of a man named Clarence Dill on that day. 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. ", "Today in 1963: The Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church", "Justice Story: Birmingham church bombing kills 4 innocent girls in racially motivated attack", "Former Klansmen indicted for murder in 1963 bombing of Birmingham, Alabama church", "16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963) (U.S. National Park Service)", "Letter From Birmingham City Jail (Excerpts)", "Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor (1897-1973) (U.S. National Park Service)", "Birmingham Confrontation Reconsidered: An Analysis of the Dynamics and Tactics of Mobilization", "Ghosts of Alabama: The Prosecution of Bobby Frank Cherry for the Bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church", "Memories of An Imperial City: Race, Gender, and Birmingham, Alabama", "Six Negro Children Killed in Alabama Sunday", "Former Klansman Is Guilty Of Bomb Deaths", "16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivors Recall a Day That Changed the Fight for Civil Rights: 'I Will Never Stop Crying Thinking About It', "Killer of Four in 1963 Blast Dies in Prison", "John Cross Jr. Pastor at Bombed Church, Dies at 82", "The Birmingham Church Bombing: Bombingham", "Remembering the Birmingham Church Bombing", "John Cross Jr., Pastor at Bombed Church, Dies at 82", "Awarding Congressional Gold Medal to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley", "From the archive, 16 September 1963: Black church bombed in Birmingham, Alabama", "Father Recalls Deadly Blast At Ala. Baptist Church", "1963 Birmingham Church Bombing Fast Facts", "New Memorial for 16th St. Baptist Church on Sun, 56 Years After Bombing", "16th Street Baptist Church Bombing: Forty Years Later, Birmingham Still Struggles with Violent Past", "40 years for Justice: Did the FBI Cover for the Birmingham Bombers? "[32], The prosecution called a total of seven witnesses to testify in their case against Blanton, including relatives of the victims, John Cross, the former pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church; an FBI agent named William Fleming, and Mitchell Burns, a former Klansman who had become a paid FBI informant. 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. Following the closing arguments, the jury retired to begin their deliberations, which lasted for over six hours and continued into the following day. [62], The FBI encountered difficulties in their initial investigation into the bombing. Relatives of the four victims openly wept in relief. Blanton's attorneys criticized the validity and quality of the 16 tape recordings introduced as evidence,[103] arguing that the prosecution had edited and spliced the sections of the audio recording that were secretly obtained within Blanton's kitchen, reducing the entirety of the tape by 26 minutes. 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 sculpture via an appeal conducted through the, John Petts died in 1991 at the age of 77. 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."[70]. [8] It was the location where students were organized and trained by the SCLC Director of Direct Action, James Bevel, to participate in the 1963 Birmingham campaign's Children's Crusade after other marches had taken place. Although reports of the bombing and the loss of four children's lives were glorified by white supremacists, who in many instances chose to celebrate the loss as "four less niggers",[41] as news of the church bombing and the fact that four young girls had been killed in the explosion reached the national and international press, many felt that they had not taken the civil rights struggle seriously enough. Universal, Inc. Four girls were killed when a bomb exploded at an Alabama church in 1963 relayed... Hearse at a funeral for the girls that Chambliss was at the 16th Baptist. 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