[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. ), Both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury on May 1. [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]. Governor Wallace offered an additional $5,000 on behalf of the state of Alabama. [91] In the years since his incarceration, Chambliss had been confined to a solitary cell to protect him from attacks by fellow inmates. )[22]:63. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. [17], Hundreds of individuals, some of them lightly wounded, converged on the church to search the debris for survivors as police erected barricades around the church and several outraged men scuffled with police. In his opening statement for the prosecution, Don Cochran presented his case: that the evidence would show that Cherry had participated in a conspiracy to commit the bombing and conceal evidence linking him to the crime and that he had later gloated over the deaths of the victims. Martin Luther King Jr. holds a press conference in Birmingham the day after the attack. 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. Baxley also gathered evidence proving Chambliss had purchased dynamite from a store in Jefferson County less than two weeks before the bomb was planted,[72] upon the pretext the dynamite was to be used to clear land the KKK had purchased near Highway 101. Relatives of the four victims openly wept in relief. [118] Cherry pleaded not guilty to the charges and did not testify on his own behalf during the trial. 35. Sarah Jean Collins, 12, lost an eye in the blast. 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. All Rights Reserved. Their deaths made all of us focus upon the ugliness of those who would punish people because of the color of their skin. July 1997 - The case is reopened by the FBI, citing new evidence. "[66], Bobby Frank Cherry died of cancer on November 18, 2004, at age 74, while incarcerated at the Kilby Correctional Facility. 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. On September 15, 1963, in Birmingham, a bomb exploded on 16th street Baptist Church at 10:22 A.M. During a Sunday school session the ground floor of the church collapsed, four girls out of nearly 200 people died, some. "[17][49], Carole Rosamond Robertson was laid to rest in a private family funeral held on September 17, 1963. 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. [98] It concluded that vascular dementia had impaired his mind, therefore making Cherry mentally incompetent to stand trial or assist in his own defense.[99]. Her sister was one of the girls who died. [32] All four girls were pronounced dead on arrival at the Hillman Emergency Clinic. Continuing to maintain his innocence, Chambliss died in prison in 1985. Martin Luther King Jr. described Birmingham as "probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. 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. Although informative to the FBI, Rowe actively participated in violence against both black and white civil rights activists. The Birmingham City Council convened an emergency meeting to propose safety measures for the city, although proposals for a curfew were rejected. (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. [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. I told the truth. ", September 15, 2013, marked the 50th anniversary, girls who died are awarded Congressional Gold Medals, statement released by Alabama Gov. Mourners embrace at the funeral. Most parishioners were able to evacuate the building as it filled with smoke, but the bodies of four young girls (14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson and 11-year-old Denise McNair) were found beneath the rubble in a basement restroom. "[122] 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. 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. 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. Reverend Cobbs stated that her uncle had repeatedly informed her he had been engaged in what he referred to as a "one-man battle" against blacks since the 1940s. Less than one minute later, the bomb exploded. [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). 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. 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. [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. This appeal was dismissed on May 22, 1979. He had repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, insisting Gary Thomas Rowe Jr. was the actual perpetrator. The bomb detonated at 10:19 a.m., killing Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collinsall 14 years oldand 11-year-old Denise McNair. appreciated. September 17, 2013. Discovery Company. A fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died in 1994 before he could be brought to trial. The deaths in a sense, are on the hands of each of us. Immediately after the blast, church members. [71] Baxley formally reopened the case in 1971. The explosion caused the church to cave in and kill four girls who had been in the bathroom in the church's basement. [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. The sole stained-glass window largely undamaged in the explosion depicted Christ leading a group of young children. As late as the 1960s, however, it was also one of Americas most racially discriminatory and segregated cities. Cars parked beside the church were damaged by the blast. [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. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Maxine McNair, the last living parent of any of the four Black girls killed in a 1963 Alabama church bombing, died Sunday. Other witnesses obtained identified Chambliss as the individual who had placed the bomb beneath the church. - Riots break out, and two African-American boys, Virgil. A Warner Bros. At that point, Black Americans were forced to read more, The Orangeburg Massacre occurred on the night of February 8, 1968, when a civil rights protest at South Carolina State University (SC State) turned deadly after highway patrolmen opened fire on about 200 unarmed black student protestors. [8], In the years leading up to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham had earned a national reputation as a tense, violent and racially segregated city, in which even tentative racial integration in any form was met with violent resistance. 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. "[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. (The plastic remnants were later lost by investigators. In attendance were major leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Martin Luther King Jr.[69] This legislation prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin; to ensure full, equal rights of African Americans before the law. Spanning from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, Spain is a lan. 1976 - Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopens the case. Some 44 years later, inquests into the deaths have. These deliberations continued until the following day. 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. [81], In his closing argument before the jury on November 17,[82] Baxley acknowledged that Chambliss was not the sole perpetrator of the bombing. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the white supremacist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four young girls. [50] Reportedly, Carole's mother, Alpha, had expressly requested that her daughter be buried separately from the other victims. While in jail, King wrote a letter to local white ministers justifying his decision not to call off the demonstrations in the face of continued bloodshed at the hands of local law enforcement officials. 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. "[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. distributed by home box office studio productions, 102a east 23rd street, new york, ny 10010, phone (212) Blanton, however, hired a lawyer and refused to answer any questions. [58] By the time of the announcement, Herman Cash had also died; however, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were still alive. The case was again reopened in 1980, 1988 and 1997, when two other former Klan members, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry, were finally brought to trial; Blanton was convicted in 2001 and Cherry in 2002. [59] These witness statements specifically indicated that a white man had exited the car and walked toward the steps of the church. [21] The anonymous caller simply said the words, "Three minutes"[22]:10 to Maull before terminating the call. ), 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. [75] But at a pre-trial hearing on October 18,[76] Judge Wallace Gibson ruled that the defendant would be tried upon one count of murderthat of Carol Denise McNair[76]and that the remaining three counts of murder would remain, but that he would not be charged in relation to these three deaths. Also, at that time, information from our surveillance was not admissible in court. Four young black girls-Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley, and Carole Robe [4] November 8, 2004 - Cherry dies in prison. In his closing argument, prosecuting attorney and future U.S. No one ever really has known and no one will until this city becomes part of the United States. Although the FBI had concluded in 1965 that the 16th Street . He said that Cherry had signed an affidavit in the presence of the FBI on October 9, 1963, confirming that he, Chambliss, and Blanton were at these premises on this date.[123]. Bombings at black homes[13] and institutions were a regular occurrence, with at least 21 separate explosions recorded at black properties and churches in the eight years before 1963. Although no city officials attended this service,[53] an estimated 800 clergymen of all races were among the attendees. "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. We all did it! NBC Universal, Inc. Four girls were killed when a bomb exploded at an Alabama church in 1963. 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. [97]:ch. [83] He expressed regret that the state was unable to request the death penalty in this case, as the death penalty in effect in the state in 1963 had been repealed. [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]. Through these rulings, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Baxley had been a student at the University of Alabama when he heard about the bombing in 1963, and later recollected: "I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what."[70]. She is the daughter of the Reverend John Cross and was aged 13 in 1963. The citys police commissioner, Eugene Bull Connor, was notorious for his willingness to use brutality in combating radical demonstrators, union members and any Black citizens. 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. Within days of the bombing, investigators began to focus their attention upon a KKK splinter group known as the "Cahaba Boys". On November 14, 1977, Robert Chambliss, then aged 73, stood trial in Birmingham's Jefferson County Courthouse. Cross testified that each girl present had been taught to contemplate how Jesus would react to affliction or injustice, and they were asked to learn to consider, "What Would Jesus Do? The 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. 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. A coffin is loaded into a hearse at a funeral for the girls. 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. February 20, 2006 - The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is declared a national historic landmark. He was 82 years old. 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. [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. Prosecutors at Chambliss's 1977 trial had initially intended to call Rowe as a witness; however, DA William Baxley had chosen not to call Rowe as a witness after being informed of the results of these polygraph tests. 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. After Baxley requested access to the original FBI files on the case, he learned that evidence accumulated by the FBI against the named suspects between 1963 and 1965 had not been revealed to the local prosecutors in Birmingham. [7] Herman Cash had died in 1994, and was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing. 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. The church's pastor, the Reverend John Cross Jr., attempted to placate the crowd by loudly reciting the 23rd Psalm through a bullhorn. It was later revealed that the FBI had information concerning the identity of the bombers by 1965 and did nothing. It was September 15,1963 11:00 AM at The 16th Street Baptist Church (United States National Park Service). An estimated 8,000 people attended the service. (The physical description by witnesses of this person varied, and could have matched either Bobby Cherry or Robert Chambliss. Addie Mae Collins, 14Denise McNair, 11Carole Robertson, 14Cynthia Wesley, 14. In response, local African-Americans burned businesses and fought police throughout the downtown area. Each received a $100 fine (the equivalent of $972 as of 2023[update]) and a suspended 180-day jail sentence. The most seriously injured survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Sarah Jean Collins, remained hospitalized for more than two months, Within two days of the church bombing, Petts had contacted then-pastor of the church, the Reverend John Cross, announcing he had launched a fundraising campaign to create this sculpture via an appeal conducted through the, John Petts died in 1991 at the age of 77. The remains of one of the four girls killed in the Birmingham, Ala., church bombing that galvanized the civil rights movement 51 years ago are missing and the victim's sister wants help locating . Did you encounter any technical issues? 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. [97] In spite of a rebuttal argument by the defense, Judge Garrett ruled that some sections were too prejudicial, but also that portions of some audio recordings could be introduced as evidence. [44] When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. Firefighters and ambulance attendants remove a body from the church. [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". [14] These attacks earned the city the nickname "Bombingham". Although Cash is known to have passed a polygraph test in which he was questioned as to his potential involvement in the bombing, The Reverend John Cross, who had been the pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church at the time of the 1963 bombing, died of natural causes on November 15, 2007. Both were arrested. Also present was Martin Luther King Jr. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Heres a look at the Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing that killed four African-American girls during church services in 1963. 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. By 1963, homemade bombs set off in Birmingham's Black homes and churches were such common occurrences that the city had earned the nickname "Bombingham.". 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". [25] According to one survivor, the explosion shook the entire building and propelled the girls' bodies through the air "like rag dolls". Carole Robertson (aged 14) and Denise McNair (aged . [86] He was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder. The act of terror by four members of the KKK at the historic Black church killed four little girls: 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley and 11-year-old Denise McNair. The Aftermath. Herman Frank Cash died of cancer in February 1994. In all, at least 20 people are injured from the initial bombing and the ensuing riots.- Alabama Governor George Wallace sends 500 National Guardsmen and 300 state troopers to the city. Kay Ivey. Sarah Collins Rudolph was the fifth girl and survived. [92][93], In 1995, ten years after Chambliss died, the FBI reopened their investigation into the church bombing. Firefighters and ambulance attendants remove a body from the church. By Rowe's own later admission, while serving as an FBI informant, he had shot and killed an unidentified black man and had been an accessory to the murder of Viola Liuzzo.[129]. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much 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. Don Cochran disputed this position, arguing that Alabama law provides for "conspiracies to conceal evidence" to be proven by both inference and circumstantial evidence. "[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. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. 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. "[51] Carole Robertson was buried in a blue casket at Shadow Lawn Cemetery.[52]. She was distressed about a remark made by Martin Luther King, who had said that the mindset that enabled the murder of the four girls was the "apathy and complacency" of black people in Alabama. In attendance were 1,600 people. As part of a revival effort by states and the federal government to prosecute cold cases from the civil rights era, the state conducted trials in the early 21st century of Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. and Bobby Cherry, who were each convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 and 2002, respectively. The 'who' is every little individual who talks about the 'niggers' and spreads the seeds of his hate to his neighbor and his son What's it like living in Birmingham? Following these closing arguments, the jury retired to consider their verdicts. Following the closing arguments, the jury retired to begin their deliberations, which lasted for over six hours and continued into the following day. 1994 - Cash dies without being charged in the bombing. "[107], Defense attorney John Robbins reminded the jury in his closing argument that his client was an admitted segregationist and a "loudmouth", but that was all that could be proven. ", "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? In this speech, Morgan lamented: "Who did it [the bombing]? [113] Blanton was confined in a one-man cell under tight security. 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". "I will never stop crying thinking about it," said Cross, 68, who was 13 at the time. Rudolph, known as the "Fifth Little Girl" for surviving the. The 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing was a devastating event. 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