He said the blast shredded the girls bodies.Some members of the jury looked down and grimaced as Mr. Brissie used a large screen to display black-and-white photographs of the bodies.Defendant Bobby Frank Cherry also turned his head away from the photos, which werent visible to a gallery that included several of the victims relatives sitting in the front row.Mr. [48]:386 On September 29, he was indicted upon charges of illegally purchasing and transporting dynamite on September 4, 1963. [77] But at a pre-trial hearing on October 18,[78] Judge Wallace Gibson ruled that the defendant would be tried upon one count of murderthat of Carol Denise McNair[78]and that the remaining three counts of murder would remain, but that he would not be charged in relation to these three deaths. [116], His first parole hearing was held on August 3, 2016. [98] The following day, both men surrendered to police. ), 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. [57], Initially, investigators theorized that a bomb thrown from a passing car had caused the explosion at the 16th Street Baptist church. 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. [126] Cherry remained stoic as the sentence was read aloud. 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. A fourth suspect died without being charged. When a bomb made of dynamite detonated at 10:22 am on September 15, 1963, church members were attending Sunday school classes before the start of the 11:00 am church service. 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 act of terror by four members of the KKK at the. 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. Click (The first three schools in Birmingham to be integrated would do so on September 4. Addie Mae Collins was one of the four little girls murdered in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing back in 1963. here for reprint permission. (Sims and Farley were later convicted of second-degree manslaughter,[47] although the judge suspended their sentences and imposed two years' probation upon each youth. Birmingham "is synonymous to barbarism" and "needs to be protected against itself," said New York City Mayor Robert Wagner. Yet the men. Described by Martin Luther King Jr. as "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity,"[5] the explosion at the church killed four girls and injured between 14 and 22 other people. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. This photo shows President Kennedy's visit to Redstone Arsenal on Sept. 11, 1962. [88] He was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder. In Birmingham, attorney Charles Morgan, Jr. spoke before the Birmingham Young Men's Business Club, identifying the people responsible for the attack. Vernon Merritt photo, More than 1,600 people attended the memorial service for Carole Rosamond Robertson on Sept. 17, 1963. Noting that no timing device was found, he disputed the governments long-held theory the bomb was planted by KKK members hours before the explosion.Mr. "I will never stop crying thinking about it," said Cross, 68, who was 13 at the time. )[22]:63. 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. Wallace and Birmingham, meanwhile, faced growing criticism nationwide. The intention was to fill the jail with protesters. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. Before his trial, Chambliss remained free upon a $200,000 bond raised by family and supporters and posted October 18. 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. The police were reportedly responding to Black youths throwing rocks at cars driven by white people. The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was examined by director Spike Lee in the Oscar-nominated documentary 4 Little Girls (1997). Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer was a research editor at Encyclopdia Britannica. Life is hard. On the afternoon of May 22, after the jury had deliberated for almost seven hours, the forewoman announced they had reached their verdicts: Bobby Frank Cherry was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Original caption: Alabama-Birmingham-bombings-Body being removed at 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/26/2023). 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. Cherrys trial was delayed after judges ruled he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing and did maintain his innocence. ", 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. The bomb that demolished the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church downstairs lounge, shattered the sanctuary's stained-glass windows, hurled large chunks of stone into nearby automobiles and. 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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In 1968, the FBI formally closed their investigation into the bombing without filing charges against any of their named suspects. The bells of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., tolled Monday in remembrance of the four girls who were killed in a bombing at the church 40 years ago. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured. More than 20 other members of the congregation were injured in the blast. [46] When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. 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. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Two more young African Americans died, and the National Guard was called in to restore order. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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". Seven witnesses testified on behalf of the prosecution, and two for the defense. As a known and popular rallying point for civil rights activists, the 16th Street Baptist Church was an obvious target. A policeman and a neighbor had each testified that Chambliss was at the home of a man named Clarence Dill on that day. [33], Between 14 and 22 additional people were injured in the explosion,[34][35] one of whom was Addie Mae's younger sister, 12-year-old Sarah Collins. His testimony was restricted to the areas of the recordings permitted into evidence. 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. [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. He had repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, insisting Gary Thomas Rowe Jr. was the actual perpetrator. Of the nearly 200 congregants inside, attending Sunday school classes and preparing for the 11 a.m. service, about 22 were injured. Several dozen people were present at the unveiling, presided over by state Senator. [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. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. On November 18, 1977,[87] they found Robert Chambliss guilty of the murder of Carol Denise McNair. George Wallace, however, repeated his call that the feds buried evidence in bombings because it pointed to "the wrong people" -- meaning civil rights groups. 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. Although informative to the FBI, Rowe actively participated in violence against both Black and white civil rights activists. A stretcher waits to carry away any more victims found. [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. Meanwhile, public outrage over the bombing continued to grow, drawing international attention to Birmingham. 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. Although a subsequent FBI investigation identified three other menBobby Frank Cherry, Herman Cash and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr.as having helped Chambliss commit the crime, it was later revealed that FBI chairman J. Edgar Hoover blocked their prosecution and shut down the investigation without filing charges in 1968. [100] It concluded that vascular dementia had impaired his mind, therefore making Cherry mentally incompetent to stand trial or assist in his own defense.[101]. These demonstrations led to an agreement, on May 8, between the city's business leaders and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to integrate public facilities, including schools, in the city within 90 days. One of several vehicles severely damaged in the explosion was found to have carried fishing tackle.[122]). The case was reopened in 1980, in 1988, and finally again in 1997, when two other former clan membersThomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherrywere brought to trial. A local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan placed bombs at the 16th Street Baptist Church and set them off as Sunday services prepared to commence on the morning of September 15, 1963. President Barack Obama would go on to sign a bill awarding the four young victims of the tragic 1963 Birmingham church bombing with the Congressional Gold Medal.. Barbara Cross, a friend of the girls who survived the church bombing, once recounted to TIME how close she was to possibly being the fifth person killed. Resulting in the injury of 14 people and the death of four girls, the attack garnered widespread national outrage. He was able to build trust with key witnesses, some of whom had been reluctant to testify in the first investigation. Following the closing arguments, the jury retired to begin their deliberations, which lasted for over six hours and continued into the following day. 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. "[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. At the base of the sculpture is an inscription of the title of the sermon the four girls were to attend before the bombing"A Love That Forgives". 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 a speech conducted before the burials of the girls, King addressed an estimated 3,300[56] mournersincluding numerous white peoplewith a speech saying: This tragic day may cause the white side to come to terms with its conscience. Within days of the bombing, investigators began to focus their attention upon a KKK splinter group known as the "Cahaba Boys". The current state death penalty law applied only to crimes committed after its passage. Hanes noted conflicting testimony among several of the 12 witnesses called by the defense to testify as to Chambliss's whereabouts on the day of the bombing. 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. 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). Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 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. 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. As Birmingham took on the appearance of a battle zone, with hundreds of police, troopers and guardsmen patrolling the streets, another black teen, Johnny Robinson, was shot to death by police. A section of wire and remnants of red plastic were discovered there, which could have been part of a timing device. Through these rulings, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Melanie Peeples reports. Other witnesses obtained identified Chambliss as the individual who had placed the bomb beneath the church. [97], 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 [30] Another victim was killed by a piece of mortar embedded in her skull. 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. "[44] A Milwaukee Sentinel editorial opined, "For the rest of the nation, the Birmingham church bombing should serve to goad the conscience. "For the past several weeks, Gov. [81] 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. [11], The three-story 16th Street Baptist Church was a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963. 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. Today marks the 55th anniversary of the tragedy. [12] Black residents did not just experience segregation in the context of leisure and employment, but also in the context of their freedom and well-being. These deliberations continued until the following day. Upon learning of the bombing at the Church, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. sent a telegram to Alabama Governor George Wallace, a staunch and vocal segregationist, stating bluntly: 'The blood of our little children is on your hands." The brutal attack and the deaths of the four little girls . . At a funeral for three of the girls (ones family preferred a separate, private service), King addressed more than 8,000 mourners. 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? 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. 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. Mr. Cherry, a 71-year-old retired truck driver, is accused of being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a bomb outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a rallying place for civil rights. [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. [132] These polygraph results had convinced some FBI agents of Rowe's culpability in the bombing. "Darkness will not last forever. After a jury convicted former Ku Klux Klan member Thomas E. Blanton Jr., who died in prison June 26, of participating in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963, then . [27] Several other cars parked near the site of the blast were destroyed, and windows of properties located more than two blocks from the church were also damaged. [20], One of the key witnesses to testify on behalf of the prosecution was the Reverend Elizabeth Cobbs, Chambliss's niece. The community, the state and the nation were stunned and shocked by this dastardly act. 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. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. FILE - Sarah Collins Rudolph and her husband, George Rudolph, talk in their . 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. Fred Shuttlesworth. 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. We all did it! This appeal was dismissed on May 22, 1979. 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. Homemade bombs planted by white supremacists in homes and churches became so commonplace that the city was sometimes known as Bombingham. Local African American churches such as the 16th Street Baptist Church were fundamental in the organization of much of the protest activity. Omissions? T hursday marked the 59th anniversary of white supremacists' deadly bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Robinson, aged 16, was shot in the back by a policeman as he fled down an alley,[43] after ignoring police orders to halt. Pallbearers load a coffin into a hearse at a funeral for victims of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham, Alabama, late September, 1963. [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. 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. Rev. [102] In January 2002, Judge Garrett ruled Cherry mentally competent to stand trial and set an initial trial date for April 29. The church bombing was the third in Birmingham in 11 days after a federal order came down to integrate Alabamas school system. The Rev. "[17][51], Carole Rosamond Robertson was laid to rest in a private family funeral held on September 17, 1963. [61] Although he met with initial resistance from the FBI,[50]: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.[76]. 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. [73] Baxley formally reopened the case in 1971. BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, Sept 13 (Reuters) - When a church bombing killed four young black girls on a quiet Sunday morning in 1963, life for a young Condoleezza Rice changed forever. Fred Shuttlesworth officiated instead. She spoke with News4's Molette Green about her fight for. 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. 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. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The call was answered by the acting Sunday School secretary, a 14-year-old girl named Carolyn Maull. Even though the legal system was slow to provide justice, the effect of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was immediate and significant. Another 22 people were injured in the explosion. 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. It is a sound that I will never forget, that will forever reverberate in my ears. Two young Black men were killed that night, one by police and another by racist thugs. Shortly thereafter, she had heard "the most horrible noise", before being struck on the head by debris. [41] The Birmingham City Council convened an emergency meeting to propose safety measures for the city, although proposals for a curfew were rejected. Blanton was convicted in 2001 and Cherry in 2002; both received life sentences (Cherry died in 2004, Blanton in 2020). (Upon cross-examination by defense attorney Art Hanes Jr., Cantrell conceded that Chambliss had emphatically denied bombing the church. 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.
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