Mourners embrace at the funeral. )[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. If you're looking for a beautiful place to travel to this summer, look no further than Spain. 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. September 15, 1963 - Four girls are killed and 14 injured in a bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. [97]: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. Did you encounter any technical issues? On 21 November 1974, two bombs ripped through the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs in Birmingham, killing 21 and injuring 220. [97]:ch. Witnesses are reluctant to talk and physical evidence is lacking, so charges are not filed. I don't know why I'm going to jail for nothing. [14] These attacks earned the city the nickname "Bombingham". 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. [50] Reportedly, Carole's mother, Alpha, had expressly requested that her daughter be buried separately from the other victims. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured. [47], The city of Birmingham initially offered a $52,000 reward for the arrest of the bombers. The explosion caused the church to cave in and kill four girls who had been in the bathroom in the church's basement. [94] 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). September 15, 1963 - A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four African-American girls during church services. Sarah Collins Rudolph was the fifth girl and survived. Cantrell also stated that Chambliss had boasted of his knowledge of how to construct a "drip-method bomb" using a fishing float and a leaking bucket of water. [130] Nonetheless, a 1979 investigation cleared Rowe of any involvement in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. [95], On May 16, 2000, a grand jury in Alabama indicted Thomas Edwin Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry on eight counts each in relation to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. [22]:57 Although the Cahaba Boys had fewer than 30 active members,[58] among them were Thomas Blanton Jr., Herman Cash, Robert Chambliss, and Bobby Cherry. His famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail was published in the national press, along with shocking images of police brutality against protesters in Birmingham that helped build widespread support for the civil rights cause. He was 93. [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. Three former Ku Klux Klan members are eventually convicted of murder for the bombing. [48]:272, The service for Carole Rosamond Robertson was held at St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church. READ MORE: Civil Rights Movement Timeline, https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/birmingham-church-bombing. Though Birminghams white supremacists (and even certain individuals) were immediately suspected in the bombing, repeated calls for the perpetrators to be brought to justice went unanswered for more than a decade. At 10:22 a.m. on the morning of September 15, 1963, some 200 church members were in the buildingmany attending Sunday school classes before the start of the 11 am servicewhen the bomb detonated on the churchs east side, spraying mortar and bricks from the front of the church and caving in its interior walls. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! [105], The trial lasted for one week. On the afternoon of 17 August 2017, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van into pedestrians on La Rambla in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain killing 13 people and injuring at least 130 others, one of whom died 10 days later on 27 August. Mourners embrace at the funeral. Family and friends of Carole Robertson attend graveside services for her in Birmingham on September 17, 1963. Through these rulings, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Cars parked beside the church were damaged by the blast. Martin Luther King Jr. described Birmingham as "probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. [8] When the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Congress on Racial Equality became involved in a campaign to register African Americans to vote in Birmingham, tensions in the city increased. [65]), 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. Jihadism. [71] Baxley formally reopened the case in 1971. [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". [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 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[69]increased worldwide awareness of and sympathy toward the civil rights cause in the United States. He was 82 years old. Following the bombing, the 16th Street Baptist Church remained closed for over eight months, as assessments and, later, repairs were conducted upon the property. In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. had been arrested there while leading supporters of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in a nonviolent campaign of demonstrations against segregation. Jackson testified that Chambliss had expressed frustration that the Klan was "dragging its feet" on the issue of racial integration,[18] and said he was eager to form a splinter group more dedicated to resistance. In Birmingham, hundreds gathered at the church for a commemorative service and wreath-laying at the spot where the bomb went off. 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. The Birmingham City Council convened an emergency meeting to propose safety measures for the city, although proposals for a curfew were rejected. 1963 Birmingham church 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.. Now 86, he had asked the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles to let him die as a free man. Cross had attended the same Sunday School class as the four victims on the day of the bombing and was slightly wounded in the attack. McNair's family announced her death. Life is hard. But when an read more, The Church of England, or Anglican Church, is the primary state church in England, where the concepts of church and state are linked. [119] (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[85] following the bombing. [36] She had 21 pieces of glass embedded in her face and was blinded in one eye. Family and friends of Carole Robertson attend graveside services for her in Birmingham on September 17, 1963. Melanie Peeples reports. All Rights Reserved. "[17][49], Carole Rosamond Robertson was laid to rest in a private family funeral held on September 17, 1963. Ware, aged 13, was shot in the cheek and chest with a revolver[16] in a residential suburb 15 miles (24km) north of the city. February 20, 2006 - The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is declared a national historic landmark. (Upon cross-examination by defense attorney Art Hanes Jr., Cantrell conceded that Chambliss had emphatically denied bombing the church. [48]), Chambliss was questioned by the FBI on September 26. 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". (Sims and Farley were later convicted of second-degree manslaughter,[45] although the judge suspended their sentences and imposed two years' probation upon each youth. [59] Although he met with initial resistance from the FBI,[48]:278 in 1976 Baxley was formally presented with some of the evidence which had been compiled by the FBI, after he publicly threatened to expose the Department of Justice for withholding evidence which could result in the prosecution of the perpetrators of the bombing.[74]. When Governor Wallace sent police and state troopers to break the protests up, violence broke out across the city; a number of protesters were arrested, and two young African American men were killed (one by police) before the National Guard was called in to restore order. [26], The explosion blew a hole measuring seven feet (2.1m) in diameter in the church's rear wall, and a crater five feet (1.5m) wide and two feet (0.61m) deep in the ladies' basement lounge, destroying the rear steps to the church and blowing a passing motorist out of his car. [79] He testified that Chambliss had visited his headquarters in 1976 and that he had attempted to affix the blame for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing upon an altogether different member of the KKK. King later spoke before 8,000 people at the funeral for three of the girls (the family of the fourth girl held a smaller private service), fueling the public outrage now mounting across the country. 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,[126] but said that he could have prosecuted Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry in 1977 if he had been granted access to these tapes. Abouyaaqoub fled the attack on foot, then killed another person in order to steal the victim's car . (J. Edgar Hoover, then-head of the FBI, disapproved of the civil rights movement; he died in 1972.). November 15, 1977 - On the second day of the trial, Chamblisss niece, Elizabeth Cobb, testifies that before the bombing, Chambliss confided to her that he had enough stuff put away to flatten half of Birmingham.. Following the opening statements, the prosecution began presenting witnesses. In this speech, Morgan lamented: "Who did it [the bombing]? The intention was to fill the jail with protesters. No one ever really has known and no one will until this city becomes part of the United States. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. [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. 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. 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. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. 2023 Cable News Network. distributed by home box office studio productions, 102a east 23rd street, new york, ny 10010, phone (212) 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. About the recordings made as Blanton conversed with Burns, Robbins emphasized that Burns had earlier testified that Blanton had never expressly said that he had made or planted the bomb. 1994 - Cash dies without being charged in the bombing. On January 20, 1961, the handsome and charismatic John F. Kennedy became president of the United States. September 14, 2013 - A bronze and steel statue of the four girls is unveiled. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. [60][61] At the time, no federal charges were filed against Chambliss or any of his fellow conspirators in relation to the bombing. The police were reportedly responding to black youths throwing rocks at cars driven by white people. The first of these witnesses was Tom Cook, a retired Birmingham police officer, who testified on November 15 as to a conversation he had had with Chambliss in 1975. 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. At approximately 10:22a.m., an anonymous man phoned the 16th Street Baptist Church. Governor Wallace offered an additional $5,000 on behalf of the state of Alabama. [59] These witness statements specifically indicated that a white man had exited the car and walked toward the steps of the church. All but one of the church's stained-glass windows were destroyed in the explosion. 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. He said the U.S. Army "ought to come to Birmingham and take over this city and run it.". 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. A coffin is loaded into a hearse at a funeral for the girls. Did you know? 1965 - Suspects emerge: Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss and Herman Frank Cash, all Ku Klux Klan members. Each received a $100 fine (the equivalent of $972 as of 2023[update]) and a suspended 180-day jail sentence. Burns had secretly recorded several conversations with Blanton in which the latter (Blanton) had gloated when talking about the bombing, and had boasted the police would not catch him when he bombed another church. 1976 - Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopens the case. 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". June 26, 2020 - Blanton dies in prison of natural causes, according to a statement released by Alabama Gov. 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. Discovery Company. 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. "[110], Blanton was sentenced to life imprisonment. [11], Black and white residents of Birmingham had access to different public amenities such as water fountains and places of public gathering such as movie theaters. Her sister was one of the girls who died. May 16, 2000 - A grand jury in Alabama indicts former Klansmen Cherry and Blanton with eight counts each of first-degree murder - four counts of intentional murder and four of murder with universal malice. [11], The three-story 16th Street Baptist Church was a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963. The four individuals named in the FBI report were Blanton, Cash, Chambliss, and Cherry. [64] This information was relayed to the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover;[65] however, no prosecutions of the four suspects ensued. "[88][89], On the same afternoon that Chambliss's guilty verdict was announced, prosecutor Baxley issued a subpoena to Thomas Blanton to appear in court about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Resulting in the injury of 14 people and the death of four girls, the attack garnered widespread national outrage. Several dozen people were present at the unveiling, presided over by state Senator. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder. The bombing was controversial because Dresden was neither important to German wartime production nor a major read more, The 1960s started off as the dawn of a golden age to most Americans. Following these closing arguments, the jury retired to consider their verdicts. A Warner Bros. [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. Birmingham, Alabama CNN Fifty years have passed since a bomb stopped the old sanctuary clock in Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church, locking in a moment that would change a nation.. Cobbs also testified that approximately one week after the bombing, she had observed Chambliss watching a news article relating to the four girls killed in the bombing. [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. [92][93], In 1995, ten years after Chambliss died, the FBI reopened their investigation into the church bombing. - Riots break out, and two African-American boys, Virgil. 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". Barbara Ann Cross also testified for the prosecution. Jones will now head to the U.S. Senate, bringing to a close an election that drew national and international attentionunusual for a state read more, In August of 1619, a journal entry recorded that 20 and odd Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrived in the British colony of Virginia and were then were bought by English colonists. 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. ". Outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often-dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans. It's never too late for a man to be held accountable for his crimes." Crucial testimony at Cherry's trial was delivered by his former wife, Willadean Brogdon, who had married Cherry in 1970. In the aftermath of the bombing, thousands of angry Black protesters gathered at the scene of the bombing. The bombings targeted African-American leaders of the Birmingham campaign. Fifty years ago, less than a month after the 1963 March on Washington, a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, killing four young African-American girls. [4] Shortly thereafter, she had heard "the most horrible noise", before being struck on the head by debris. His testimony was restricted to the areas of the recordings permitted into evidence. In response, local African-Americans burned businesses and fought police throughout the downtown area. Although this donation was accepted,[48]:274 Martin Luther King Jr. is known to have sent Wallace a telegram saying, "the blood of four little children is on your hands. September 15, 2013, marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing. ), 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. "[97] Cross testified that she would usually have accompanied her friends into the basement lounge to change into robes for the forthcoming sermon, but she had been given an assignment. 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. Petts then elaborated that the inspiration for the stained-glass image was a verse from the, On the 27th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, a state historic marker was unveiled at Greenwood Cemetery, the final resting place of three of the four victims of the bombing (Carole Robertson's body had been reburied in Greenwood Cemetery in 1974, following the death of her father). The next day, they are joined by 500 police officers and 150 sheriffs deputies. Firefighters and ambulance attendants remove a body from the church. [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]. 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. [13][15], Civil Rights activists and leaders in Birmingham fought against the city's deeply-ingrained and institutionalized racism with tactics that included the targeting of Birmingham's economic and social disparities. [1][2][3] Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.[4]. 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. Many of the same audiotapes presented in Blanton's trial were also introduced into evidence in the trial of Bobby Cherry. In his closing argument, prosecuting attorney and future U.S. "[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. September 12, 2013 - Fifty years after the bombing, all four girls who died are awarded Congressional Gold Medals. 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. 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. Gold Medals 14 ] These witness statements specifically indicated that a white man had exited the car walked! 1976 - Alabama attorney General Bill Baxley reopens the case in 1971 - Blanton dies in of... After the bombing 11 ], Blanton was sentenced to life imprisonment, a 1979 investigation cleared Rowe of involvement! 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