James Robinson

Johnny Robinson (sometimes called James Robinson or Johnnie Ray Robinson) (born c. 1947; died September 15, 1963) was a teenage victim of racial violence on the day of the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church.

Robinson lived at 622 28th Street North.

In the chaos following the Sunday-morning church bombing, Birmingham Police detectives responded to reports of "Negroes throwing rocks at whites". Other reports indicate that groups of white boys were cruising the area in cars yelling racial slurs and at least one confrontation between white and blacks had escalated to rock-throwing.

Detectives Charlie Pierce and M. E. Gullion confronted Robinson and another boy in an alley between 8th and 9th Avenue North near 26th Street. According to their testimony, Gullion and Pierce ordered the boys to halt, but they took off running instead. Another officer, Jack Parker, fired buckshot toward their feet, but struck Robinson in the back. He died before he arrived at University Hospital. Coroner J. O. Butler ruled that Robinson's death was caused by the buckshot. Police justified the shooting as "self-defense", claiming that Robinson had thrown rocks at their Police cruiser. No arrests or convictions were obtained.

Reverend Abraham Woods officiated at Robinson's funeral and attributed the tragedy to Birmingham's "long, despicable record of police brutality."

References

• "Council asks for all facts on two deaths." (September 16, 1963) The Birmingham News
• "Police Brutality in Birmingham Charged: Negro Minister Speaks at Funeral" (September 23, 1963). Associated Press