The Birmingham church bombing shocked the nation during the fight for the Civil Rights. Within one week of being sworn into office, Baxley had researched original police files into the bombing, discovering that the original police documents were "mostly worthless". But by September 20, the FBI was able to confirm that the explosion had been caused by a device that was purposely planted beneath the steps to the church,[59] close to the women's lounge. According to Cobbs, Chambliss had said: "It [the bomb] wasn't meant to hurt anybody it didn't go off when it was supposed to. Cochran also added that although the evidence to be presented would not conclusively show that Cherry had personally planted or ignited the bomb, the combined evidence would illustrate that he had aided and abetted in the commission of the act. A key point contested as to the validity of the audiotapes being introduced into evidence, outside the hearing of the jury, was the fact that Cherry had no grounds to contest the introduction of the tapes into evidence, as, under the Fourth Amendment, neither his home or property had been subject to discreet recording by the FBI. Bobby Frank Cherry was tried in Birmingham, Alabama, before Judge James Garrett, on May 6, 2002. 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. 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. That bomb took the lives of four young girls, including my friend and playmate [Carol] Denise McNair. 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. Birmingham pub bombings: Who were the victims? - BBC News [25] According to one survivor, the explosion shook the entire building and propelled the girls' bodies through the air "like rag dolls". From left to right: Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14. People everywhere died.". Rev. [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. Investigators also gathered numerous witness statements attesting to a group of white men in a turquoise 1957 Chevrolet who had been seen near the church in the early hours of the morning of September 15. [93] In the years since his incarceration, Chambliss had been confined to a solitary cell to protect him from attacks by fellow inmates. [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. Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer was a research editor at Encyclopdia Britannica. He had repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, insisting Gary Thomas Rowe Jr. was the actual perpetrator. More than 1,000 people were present at the unveiling of the memorial, including survivors of the bombing, friends of the victims and the parents of Denise McNair, Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware. Maxine McNair died on Sunday, Birmingham Mayor Randall . ), Both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury on May 1. (Tom Self/ Birmingham News), Original caption: Destruction is seen in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963. [126] Cherry remained stoic as the sentence was read aloud. [11] The intentional scope of these activities was to see the end of segregation across Birmingham and the South as a whole. Doug Jones, the Alabama Senate race and the 1963 Birmingham church 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. The tragic 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, helped set America on a course toward passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.. And despite the personal tragedy the bombing caused the McNair family, it set them on a path of spreading love, understanding and racial unity to people across the country. He referred to testimony given by her father, Chris McNair, about the family's loss, and requested that the jury return a verdict of guilty.[86]. [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. In Birmingham, attorney Charles Morgan, Jr. spoke before the Birmingham Young Men's Business Club, identifying the people responsible for the attack. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. 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. "I will never stop crying thinking about it," said Cross, who was 13 at the . Although sections of the recordingpresented in evidence on April 27are unintelligible, Blanton can twice be heard mentioning the phrase "plan a bomb" or "plan the bomb". [20], One of the key witnesses to testify on behalf of the prosecution was the Reverend Elizabeth Cobbs, Chambliss's niece. "I will never stop crying thinking about it," said Cross, 68, who was 13 at the time. These deliberations continued until the following day. The Cahaba Boys had formed earlier in 1963, as they felt that the KKK was becoming restrained and impotent in response to concessions granted to Black people to end racial segregation. Pictured here are Johnny Robinson (left), 16, and Virgil Ware, 13. Cross said he believed the violence could have been prevented if civic leaders had spoken out forcefully against the bombings across Birmingham in recent years. 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. The NAACP questioned the speed of the investigation and whether all resources available were being utilized. [78][79], Chambliss pleaded not guilty to the charges, insisting that although he had purchased a case of dynamite less than two weeks before the bombing, he had given the dynamite to a Klansman and FBI agent provocateur named Gary Thomas Rowe Jr.[80], To discredit Chambliss's claims that Rowe had committed the bombing, prosecuting attorney William Baxley introduced two law enforcement officers to testify as to Chambliss's inconsistent claims of innocence. (The plastic remnants were later lost by investigators. Oval photographs and brief biographies of the four girls killed in the explosion, the most seriously injured survivor (Sarah Collins), and the two teenage boys who were shot to death later that day also adorn the base of the sculpture. In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not become bitter We must not lose faith in our white brothers. 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. "Darkness will not last forever. [61] These witness statements specifically indicated that a white man had exited the car and walked toward the steps of the church. 16th Street Baptist Church bombing | History & Four Girls Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at the funeral of three of the girls. [82] Moreover, Cobbs testified on November 16 that, on the day before the bombing, Chambliss had told her that he had in his possession enough dynamite to "flatten half of Birmingham". AP While the FBI concluded in 1965 that the. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Omissions? 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. Investigative records show that Rowe had twice failed polygraph tests when questioned as to his possible involvement in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and two separate, non-fatal explosions. On November 18, 1977,[87] they found Robert Chambliss guilty of the murder of Carol Denise McNair. It was later revealed that the FBI had information concerning the identity of the bombers by 1965 and did nothing. The bombing occurred days after black students began attending Birmingham city schools. Outrage over the death of the four young girls helped build increased support behind the continuing struggle to end segregationsupport that would help lead to the passage of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. George Wallace, however, repeated his call that the feds buried evidence in bombings because it pointed to "the wrong people" -- meaning civil rights groups. Within days of the bombing, investigators began to focus their attention upon a KKK splinter group known as the "Cahaba Boys". BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Jurors in the murder trial of a former Ku Klux Klansman were shown grisly morgue photos yesterday of the four black girls killed in a 1963 church bombing.It was calculated to produce death, Coroner Robert Brissie said of the bomb. The sole stained-glass window largely undamaged in the explosion depicted Christ leading a group of young children. [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. For more on the ceremony, please visit this story. Three 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins,. Both the church and the bereaved families received an estimated $23,000 in cash donations from members of the public. Birmingham Bombing Anniversary Photos: 16th Street Church - NewsOne [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. Last parent of a child killed in the Birmingham 16th Street - CNN [92], Robert Chambliss died in the Lloyd Noland Hospital and Health Center on October 29, 1985, at the age of 81. As late as the 1960s, however, it was also one of Americas most racially discriminatory and segregated cities. )[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. As a result, no federal charges were filed in the '60s. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States during the civil rights movement and also contributed to support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by Congress. 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). [46] When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. More than 20 other members of the congregation were injured in the blast. At least 14 others are injured in. Twenty-one people died when two bombs were detonated in Birmingham in 1974 On 21 November 1974, two bombs ripped through the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs in Birmingham, killing 21. The deaths in a sense, are on the hands of each of us. Baxley also gathered evidence proving Chambliss had purchased dynamite from a store in Jefferson County less than two weeks before the bomb was planted,[74] upon the pretext the dynamite was to be used to clear land the KKK had purchased near Highway 101. "[24] Another witness to testify was William Jackson, who testified as to his joining the KKK in 1963 and becoming acquainted with Chambliss shortly thereafter. 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. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. She was 93. . Brogdon testified on May 16 that Cherry had boasted to her that he had been the individual who planted the bomb beneath the steps to the church, then returned hours later to light the fuse to the dynamite. U.S. government destroying the dollars value through inflation. birmingham church bombing victims autopsy - southlakepeds.com 1963 Birmingham church bombing A grieving relative is led away from the site of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. Cherry's defense attorney, Mickey Johnson, protested his client's innocence, citing that much of the evidence presented was circumstantial. KKK members had routinely called in bomb threats intended to disrupt civil rights meetings as well as services at the church. [57][58], As the girls' coffins were taken to their graves, King directed that those present remain solemn and forbade any singing, shouting or demonstrations. According to Vann's later testimony, Chambliss was standing "looking down toward the church, like a firebug watching his fire". It was part of a coordinated effort between local, state and federal governments to review cold cases of the civil rights era in the hopes of prosecuting perpetrators. )[22]:63. Today marks the 55th anniversary of the tragedy. [99]:ch. "[45], Two more Black youths, Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware, were shot to death in Birmingham within seven hours of the Sunday morning bombing. Updated: January 25, 2021 | Original: January 27, 2010. Cobbs also testified that approximately one week after the bombing, she had observed Chambliss watching a news report relating to the four girls killed in the bombing. A later report stated: "By 1965, we had [four] serious suspectsnamely Thomas Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry, all Klan membersbut witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. [30] Another victim was killed by a piece of mortar embedded in her skull. The other victims were Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson. "[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. As part of a revival effort by states and the federal government to prosecute cold cases from the civil rights era, the state placed both Blanton Jr. and Cherry on trial, who were each convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Also, at that time, information from our surveillance was not admissible in court. The Reverend Cross is interred at Hillandale Memorial Gardens in, Welsh craftsman and artist John Petts was inspired to construct and deliver the iconic stained-glass, The names of the four girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing are engraved upon the. We strive for accuracy and fairness. A fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died in 1994 before he could be tried. [11], The three-story 16th Street Baptist Church was a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. 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. The bomb injured at least 20 people and killed four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. In his rebuttal closing argument, defense attorney Art Hanes Jr. attacked the evidence presented by the prosecution as being purely circumstantial,[87] adding that, despite the existence of similar circumstantial evidence, Chambliss had not been prosecuted in 1963 of the church bombing. The call was answered by the acting Sunday School secretary, a 14-year-old girl named Carolyn Maull. [73] Baxley formally reopened the case in 1971. 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. 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Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Birmingham Public Library. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. Although informative to the FBI, Rowe actively participated in violence against both Black and white civil rights activists. Maxine McNair, last living parent of a child killed in Birmingham - al Blanton was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison.Klansman Robert Chambliss was convicted of murder in the bombing in 1977 and died in prison. "[112], Blanton was sentenced to life imprisonment. [111] When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say before sentence was imposed, Blanton said: "I guess the Lord will settle it on Judgment Day. I don't know why I'm going to jail for nothing. Alabama sidesteps compensation for survivor of 1963 KKK Birmingham church bombing. He was 82 years old. She spoke with News4's Molette Green about her fight for. 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. Four black girls in Alabama had been killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church a crime that shocked the country and helped fuel the civil rights movement.
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