1963 church bombing

The 1963 church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist attack at the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963. It proved to be a turning point of the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s, provoking horror and outrage that expanded the campaign to correct injustices. Many consider the event to have provided the impetus for passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Early that Sunday morning, Ku Klux Klan members Bobby Frank Cherry and Robert Edward Chambliss (aka Dynamite Bob) planted 19 sticks of dynamite in the basement of the church. At about 10:25 AM, the bomb exploded. Four young girls — Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair — were killed in the blast, while 22 more were injured.

Chambliss was initially charged for the murders, but there was no conviction. Years later it was found that the FBI had accumulated evidence against the bombers that had not been revealed to the prosecutors, by order of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. In 1977, Chambliss was prosecuted by Alabama Attorney-General Bill Baxley and was convicted for the murders and sentenced to several terms of life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1985.

After reopening the case several times, in 2000 the FBI assisted the state authorities in bringing charges against Cherry and Thomas Blanton. Blanton and Cherry were convicted by state court juries and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry, who always denied his involvement, died on November 18, 2004.

The song "Birmingham Sunday", composed by Richard Farina and recorded by Joan Baez, chronicled the events and aftermath of the bombing.

4 Little Girls, Spike Lee's 1997 documentary about the bombing, was nominated for an Academy Awards for "Best Documentary".

References

• Branch, Taylor (1988). Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954 -1963, New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671687425.
• Sikora, Frank (April 1991). Until Justice Rolls Down: The Birmingham Church Bombing Case, Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0817305203.
• Cobbs, Elizabeth H.; Smith, Petric J. (April 1994). Long Time Coming: An Insider’s Story of the Birmingham Church Bombing that Rocked the World, Birmingham, AL: Crane Hill. ISBN 1881548104.
• Hansen, Jeff and John Archibald. (September 15, 1997) "Church bomb felt like 'world shaking'." Birmingham News.

External links

• Online archives at the Birmingham Public Library, including the investigation and trial
• website of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.