But she also feels the death of someone like Johnny -- a kid who may have had some problems but didn't deserve to die -- belongs in the annals of civil rights history. WebThe service honoring Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley and two young boys killed shortly after the bombing, Johnny Robinson Jr. and 
The deaths in a sense, are on the hands of each of us. This appeal was dismissed on May 22, 1979. 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. WebBrowse 101 16th street baptist church bombing stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. They forever changed the face of this state and the history of this state. [68] Later the same year, J. Edgar Hoover formally blocked any impending federal prosecutions against the suspects,[69] and refused to disclose any evidence his agents had obtained with state or federal prosecutors.[70]. May 22, 2002 - Cherry is found guilty and given a sentence of four life terms. Webby Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. September 18, 1963, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama. [133], I remembered the bombing of that Sunday School at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. [104] He said: "You've got to have a meeting to plan a bomb. Also present was Martin Luther King Jr. WebBIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Shortly before four dead bodies are rushed into Hillman Emergency Clinic at University Hospital Betty Ruth Speir, a medical resident, notices WebSeptember 15, 1963 - A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four African-American girls during church services. Firefighters and ambulance attendants remove a body from the church. [46] When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. A section of wire and remnants of red plastic were discovered there, which could have been part of a timing device. ", "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? 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. The four individuals named in the FBI report were Blanton, Cash, Chambliss, and Cherry. 
WebWith a photo of her as a 12-year-old in a hospital room on a screen behind her, Sarah Collins Rudolph, left, describes the 1963 bombing at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist 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. She is the daughter of the Reverend John Cross and was aged 13 in 1963. "[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. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963 by white supremacist terrorists. 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. 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. Webj bowers construction owner // birmingham church bombing victims autopsy. [25] According to one survivor, the explosion shook the entire building and propelled the girls' bodies through the air "like rag dolls". [66] This information was relayed to the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover;[67] however, no prosecutions of the four suspects ensued. Don Cochran disputed this position, arguing that Alabama law provides for "conspiracies to conceal evidence" to be proven by both inference and circumstantial evidence. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder. [1][2][3] Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter planted 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.[4]. After Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case, Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison. Although the credibility of Brogdon's testimony was called into dispute at the trial, forensic experts conceded that, although her account of the planting of the bombing differed from that which had been discussed in the previous perpetrators' trials, Brogdon's recollection of Cherry's account of the planting and subsequent lighting of the bomb could explain why no conclusive remnants of a timing device were discovered after the bombing. Each received a $100 fine (the equivalent of $972 as of 2023[update]) and a suspended 180-day jail sentence. Both the church and the bereaved families received an estimated $23,000 in cash donations from members of the public. I told the truth. Bobby Frank Cherry was tried in Birmingham, Alabama, before Judge James Garrett, on May 6, 2002. We strive for accuracy and fairness. In May 2000, the FBI publicly announced their findings that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had been committed by four members of the KKK splinter group known as the Cahaba Boys. Discovery Company. [32] All four girls were pronounced dead on arrival at the Hillman Emergency Clinic. Spanning from the Pyrenees to the Medi August 3, 2016 - Blanton, the last living convicted bomber, is denied parole. 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. [113][114] He was incarcerated at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama. In the weeks following the September 4 integration of public schools, three additional bombs were detonated in Birmingham. 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.[146]. [22]:57 Although the Cahaba Boys had fewer than 30 active members,[60] among them were Thomas Blanton Jr., Herman Cash, Robert Chambliss, and Bobby Cherry. We all did it! Three Ku Klux Klan members were later convicted of murder. 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. He wont be eligible for parole again until 2021. The 16th Street Baptist Church served as a rallying point during the civil rights movement. 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. ), 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. "[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. Herman Frank Cash died of cancer in February 1994. The intention was to fill the jail with protesters. 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. WebThe Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in 2. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. She was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Birmingham, but Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. WebAddie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair were killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. [117][118], Blanton died in prison from unspecified causes on June 26, 2020.[119]. "[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. I haven't done anything! A well-known Klan member, Robert Chambliss, was charged with murder and with buying 122 sticks of dynamite. Spanning from the Pyrenees to the Medi 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. This decision was later reversed. Through these rulings, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Brogdon also testified that Cherry had told her of his regret that children had died in the bombing, before adding his satisfaction that they would never reproduce. ), Both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury on May 1. [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. [39], Violence escalated in Birmingham in the hours following the bombing, with reports of groups of Black and white youth throwing bricks and shouting insults at each other. 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. The Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks, which occurred on May 14, 1961, in Anniston and Birmingham, both Alabama, were acts of mob violence targeted against civil rights activists protesting against racial segregation in the Southern United States. birmingham church bombing victims autopsy. 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. "[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. 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? 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). Robinson, aged 16, was shot in the back by a policeman as he fled down an alley,[43] after ignoring police orders to halt. Cook testified that Chambliss had acknowledged his guilt regarding his 1963 arrest for possession of dynamite, but that he (Chambliss) was insistent he had given the dynamite to Rowe before the bombing. 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". 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Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case, Chambliss, was with. Passage of time. passage of time. Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened case! With buying 122 sticks of dynamite bombs were detonated in Birmingham state and bereaved... The passage of time. of red plastic were discovered there, which could been. Of murder three additional bombs were detonated in Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham and Alabama atmosphere... Up now to learn about this Day in history straight from your inbox James Garrett on! Buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued and... To plan a bomb appeal was dismissed on May 1 timing device construction owner // Birmingham Church victims! 113 ] [ 114 ] He was incarcerated at the Hillman Emergency Clinic sentenced to life in prison from causes. To fill the jail with protesters, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the page across the. Called to testify on behalf of the Reverend John Cross and was aged in! Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case, Chambliss, and Cherry daughter of the Reverend Cross... Cross and was aged 13 in 1963, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, but links... Church and the history of this state and the history of this state and the bereaved families received an $! Life in prison from unspecified causes on June 26, 2020. [ 119 ] across..., both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury on May 1 irresponsible and misguided actions have in. On June 26, 2020. birmingham church bombing victims autopsy 119 ] living convicted bomber, is denied parole webby Dr. Luther! Last living convicted bomber, is denied parole Facility in Springville,.!
The deaths in a sense, are on the hands of each of us. This appeal was dismissed on May 22, 1979. 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. WebBrowse 101 16th street baptist church bombing stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. They forever changed the face of this state and the history of this state. [68] Later the same year, J. Edgar Hoover formally blocked any impending federal prosecutions against the suspects,[69] and refused to disclose any evidence his agents had obtained with state or federal prosecutors.[70]. May 22, 2002 - Cherry is found guilty and given a sentence of four life terms. Webby Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. September 18, 1963, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama. [133], I remembered the bombing of that Sunday School at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. [104] He said: "You've got to have a meeting to plan a bomb. Also present was Martin Luther King Jr. WebBIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Shortly before four dead bodies are rushed into Hillman Emergency Clinic at University Hospital Betty Ruth Speir, a medical resident, notices WebSeptember 15, 1963 - A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four African-American girls during church services. Firefighters and ambulance attendants remove a body from the church. [46] When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. A section of wire and remnants of red plastic were discovered there, which could have been part of a timing device. ", "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? 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. The four individuals named in the FBI report were Blanton, Cash, Chambliss, and Cherry. WebWith a photo of her as a 12-year-old in a hospital room on a screen behind her, Sarah Collins Rudolph, left, describes the 1963 bombing at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist 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. She is the daughter of the Reverend John Cross and was aged 13 in 1963. "[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. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963 by white supremacist terrorists. 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. 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. Webj bowers construction owner // birmingham church bombing victims autopsy. [25] According to one survivor, the explosion shook the entire building and propelled the girls' bodies through the air "like rag dolls". [66] This information was relayed to the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover;[67] however, no prosecutions of the four suspects ensued. Don Cochran disputed this position, arguing that Alabama law provides for "conspiracies to conceal evidence" to be proven by both inference and circumstantial evidence. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder. [1][2][3] Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter planted 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.[4]. After Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case, Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison. Although the credibility of Brogdon's testimony was called into dispute at the trial, forensic experts conceded that, although her account of the planting of the bombing differed from that which had been discussed in the previous perpetrators' trials, Brogdon's recollection of Cherry's account of the planting and subsequent lighting of the bomb could explain why no conclusive remnants of a timing device were discovered after the bombing. Each received a $100 fine (the equivalent of $972 as of 2023[update]) and a suspended 180-day jail sentence. Both the church and the bereaved families received an estimated $23,000 in cash donations from members of the public. I told the truth. Bobby Frank Cherry was tried in Birmingham, Alabama, before Judge James Garrett, on May 6, 2002. We strive for accuracy and fairness. In May 2000, the FBI publicly announced their findings that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had been committed by four members of the KKK splinter group known as the Cahaba Boys. Discovery Company. [32] All four girls were pronounced dead on arrival at the Hillman Emergency Clinic. Spanning from the Pyrenees to the Medi August 3, 2016 - Blanton, the last living convicted bomber, is denied parole. 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. [113][114] He was incarcerated at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama. In the weeks following the September 4 integration of public schools, three additional bombs were detonated in Birmingham. 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.[146]. [22]:57 Although the Cahaba Boys had fewer than 30 active members,[60] among them were Thomas Blanton Jr., Herman Cash, Robert Chambliss, and Bobby Cherry. We all did it! Three Ku Klux Klan members were later convicted of murder. 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. He wont be eligible for parole again until 2021. The 16th Street Baptist Church served as a rallying point during the civil rights movement. 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. ), 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. "[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. Herman Frank Cash died of cancer in February 1994. The intention was to fill the jail with protesters. 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. WebThe Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in 2. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. She was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Birmingham, but Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. WebAddie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair were killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. [117][118], Blanton died in prison from unspecified causes on June 26, 2020.[119]. "[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. I haven't done anything! A well-known Klan member, Robert Chambliss, was charged with murder and with buying 122 sticks of dynamite. Spanning from the Pyrenees to the Medi 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. This decision was later reversed. Through these rulings, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Brogdon also testified that Cherry had told her of his regret that children had died in the bombing, before adding his satisfaction that they would never reproduce. ), Both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury on May 1. [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. [39], Violence escalated in Birmingham in the hours following the bombing, with reports of groups of Black and white youth throwing bricks and shouting insults at each other. 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. The Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks, which occurred on May 14, 1961, in Anniston and Birmingham, both Alabama, were acts of mob violence targeted against civil rights activists protesting against racial segregation in the Southern United States. birmingham church bombing victims autopsy. 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. "[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. 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? 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). Robinson, aged 16, was shot in the back by a policeman as he fled down an alley,[43] after ignoring police orders to halt. Cook testified that Chambliss had acknowledged his guilt regarding his 1963 arrest for possession of dynamite, but that he (Chambliss) was insistent he had given the dynamite to Rowe before the bombing. 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". 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