January 1962 church bombings

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The January 1962 church bombings were a trio of racially-motivated bombings that took place on the evening of Tuesday, January 16, 1962. Small dynamite bombs were detonated at New Bethel Baptist Church, St Luke's AME Zion Church in East Birmingham, and Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ in North Birmingham. The incidents were investigated by the Birmingham Police Department, but no suspects were ever identified or arrested.

Detectives J. H. Lambert and J. W. Holland took the calls at around 10:08 PM and responded first to the St Luke AME Zion Church at 3937 12th Avenue North. It appeared to them that a small bomb consisting of one or two sticks of dynamite was set against the north wall of the building and lit by a fuse. Several bricks in the foundation wall were loosened and ten windows were damaged, but the interior of the church remained intact. It was estimated that repairs would cost around $200. Five windows were also broken at a neighbor's house, causing an estimated $18 of damage.

According to pastor J. A. Hart a prayer meeting had been held that evening, but had been dismissed about forty-five minutes before the explosion. Detectives questioned Hart and some trustees of the church about any association with Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. They said they had no contact with the group. The neighboring family had no information pertinent to the investigation. Some of the "several other colored people who were milling around the church" in the aftermath of the bombing claimed to have seen a "light-colored large automobile" leave the scene at high speed just before the blast.

The detectives then went around the corner to the New Bethel Baptist Church at 13th Avenue North and Sipsey Street, where they found a small crater in the street in front of the church. The church itself had only minor damage, though several nearby houses had broken windows and one neighbor, Pinky Travis, reported that she was knocked off her feet in her kitchen and hurt her shoulder in the fall. Some of the bystanders provided further details on the car they saw leave the scene. It was a Buick, almost certainly a 1955 model, appearing to be a two-door coupe.

After leaving the second church, the detectives drove to North Birmingham to investigate the third bombing reported at Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ, Temple No. 7, at 2505 24th Street North. The small bomb appeared to have been made and set in the same manner as the St Luke's bomb. It caused minor damage to the church, estimated to be about $50 worth to repair, and broke a few windows in nearby houses.

During their investigation, the detectives learned that two patrol officers, A. Y. Parker and William "Jack" Elam, riding in car no. 39, had suffered minor injuries in the blast. Parker had already been carried to West End Baptist Hospital for treatment, but Elam remained on the scene and reported their experience. According to him, Parker had been driving the patrol car south on 24th Street when they saw a young black male running north toward them. When they stopped the car, the man turned and ran east on 25th Court North. As they backed up the car to give chase, the bomb exploded at the church. Shaken by the blast, the two officers lost site of the male suspect in the cloud of dust.

The following morning, Detectives Lambert and Holland returned to New Bethel Baptist Church and picked up a neighbor, Lula Mae Jordan, who was said to have been sitting on her front porch before the bomb went off. They questioned her at Birmingham City Hall. According to her statement, she had heard the first blast at St Luke's and went out on the porch where she observed the 1955 Buick parked on the wrong side of the street with its lights off. When the car tore off, she saw a small paper package left in the street with a curl of smoke rising from it. She went back inside and telephoned the police to report it, and had just put down the phone when the bomb exploded.

Another statement, from Jack McGlown of 3965 13th Avenue North, corroborated Jordan's description of the car. He added that he had seen a black boy run from the church and get into the car before it sped away.

On Thursday, January 18 the detectives returned to the scene at New Bethel where they re-interviewed Travis and spoke to several other African-American neighbors, most of whom said they saw the light-colored car "at one time or another". In the opinion of Lambert and Holland, it sounded as if the witnesses had all been "approached and talked to by some unknown person," given their anxiousness and reluctance to come downtown to make formal statements. This suspicion was bolstered by a Mary Kirkland who had also seen the smoking bomb and run back to her house at 3956 13th Avenue North. Though she refused to make a statement on the record, she told detectives that a "colored female" had knocked at her door the evening following the explosion asking to speak with her, but she refused to open the door.

The two investigators were then joined by Detective C. B. Golden who assisted in re-canvassing neighbors. In a statement given at City Hall, Joe and Louise Wilson of 1312 Sipsey Street said they saw two black males in the light-colored Buick seen near the church, and furthermore that they had spoken with the two boys when they returned to the area afterward.

The detectives also spoke to a black police informant who claimed that though he was at a home several blocks away and did not hear the explosions himself, that a man he knew only by a nickname had come to the house to talk about the bombings and said that he "knew the person who had discharged the dynamite."

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