Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is well known as the site of the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed four little girls and injured 22 others, shocking the world and galvanizing the American Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the city, blacks were forbidden to use public facilities like parks and fairgrounds except on designated “colored days.”, Because of poll taxes, selectively applied voter literacy tests, and threats of violence from the Ku Klux Klan, very few blacks managed to register to vote. “My mother told me that all the girls that were in there with me, they was all killed. A Gray Media Group, Inc. Station - © 2002-2020 Gray Television, Inc. 57 years since 16th Street church bombing. Chambliss received life in prison in 1977 following a case led by Alabama Attorney General Robert Baxley.

4. By 1965, we had serious suspects—namely, Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., all KKK members—but witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. Our Birmingham office launched an immediate investigation and wired the FBI Director about the crime. The violent blast ripped through the wall, killing four African-American girls on the other side and injuring more than 20 inside the church. September 15, 2020 at 7:54 PM CDT - Updated September 16 at 12:02 PM, Southwest Airlines returning to Jackson airport in 2021, Suspect arrested after deadly shooting in Canton, Ocean Springs native named commander of Space Force first field command, Medical marijuana politics heating up ahead of election day. Blanton remains in prison and will become eligible for parole in 2021, after having been denied parole in 2016. She lost one eye and underwent many reconstructive facial surgeries. The bombing and the often violent protests that followed made the civil rights movement the focus of public opinion and ultimately served as a tipping point in the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There were approximately 200 church members in the Baptist Church when the attack took place.
Would Someone Tell Me What 2 Thessalonians 2 Means?! In May 2001, former Klansmen Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to four life terms.

Herman Cash died in 1994 before he was ever charged. Jones prosecuted Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, two members of the Ku Klux Klan, for their roles in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. 5. Learn more. 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. Firefighters and ambulance attendants remove a body from the church. Her sister was one of the girls who died. We re-opened our case in the mid-1990s, and Blanton and Cherry were indicted in May 2000. Sisters, You Have Permission to Lead an Ordinary Life, The Children’s Series You Should Start Reading in 2020, The One Book on Racial History You Should Read (Ideally with Others). Mourners embrace at the funeral. Martin Luther King Jr. holds a press conference in Birmingham the day after the attack. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/birmingham-church-bombing-video FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. government, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights in the '60s, Part 2: Retired Investigators Reflect on 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, ND-98: Case of the Long Island Double Agent, International Cyber Ring That Infected Millions of Computers Dismantled. (AP) It was 57 years ago when Sarah and her sister Addie Mae gathered in the downstairs ladies' lounge of the 16th Street Baptist Church. At 10:00 p.m. that night, Assistant Director Al Rosen assured Assistant Attorney General Katzenbach that “the Bureau considered this a most heinous offense…[and]…we had entered the investigation with no holds barred.”. 16th Street Baptist Church bombing case. Here are eight other facts you need to know about the 16th Street Baptist Church bomb attack. The remaining suspect, Herman Frank Cash died in 1994 without being charged in the bombing. One internal memo noted that: “…we have practically torn Birmingham apart and have interviewed thousands of persons. The four Klux clan members who planned the attack were not convicted until 1977. President Barack Obama honored the four girls with a Congregational Medal of Honor, which was presented before the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute on May 24, 2013. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/four-black-schoolgirls-killed-in-birmingham?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
It was declared a national historic landmark in 2006. But it’s simply not true.