Page 356 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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336———Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing

Grossman, Patricia. Punjab in Crisis: Human Rights in On September 18, 1963, Rev. King gave the eulogy
India. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991. at the funeral of three of the girls, saying, “The deaths
O’Connell, Joseph T., et al. Sikh History and Religion in the may well serve as the redemptive force that brings
Twentieth Century Toronto, Ontario: University of light to this dark city.” The public outcry about the
Toronto, 1988.
Sixteenth Street Church bombing was enormous. The
bombing and the nation’s horrified reaction made pas-
sage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by Congress
SIXTEENTH STREET BAPTIST much easier for the senators and representatives. This
CHURCH BOMBING legislation ended lawful segregation in the South.

INVESTIGATIONS AND TRIALS
On September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in a
basement lounge of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Initially, after local authorities tried and failed to con-
Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls vince the public that the bombing was the work of
and injuring more than 20 others. Although authorities “unknown black perpetrators,” Robert “Dynamite
had sufficient evidence to prosecute several members Bob” Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was
of the Ku Klux Klan shortly after the bombing, nearly charged with illegal possession of dynamite. The
40 years passed before all the suspects were brought charge was later dropped, making clear that local
to trial. authorities would not pursue the case; the FBI then
The church bombing occurred just 18 days after became involved. By 1965, a memorandum sent to
civil rights leaders had led the March on Washington, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, identified four
D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his “I Klansmen—Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman
Have A Dream” speech. In the 1960s, Birmingham Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr.—as the key
had been at the center of the civil rights struggle in the suspects. The Birmingham FBI office recommended
South. The church was a vital part of Birmingham’s prosecution. Hoover, however, twice blocked prosecu-
African American community, serving as headquar- tion attempts, claiming that the chance of conviction
ters for local civil rights efforts; it was a frequent would be “remote.” In 1968, the FBI closed the case.
meeting place for activists. In 1971, Alabama attorney general Bill Baxley
Between 1947 and 1965, Birmingham experi- reopened the case and the FBI, following Hoover’s
enced a series of more than 50 racially motivated death in 1972, contributed some additional evidence.
bombings; it was called “Bombingham” following a In September 1977, Chambliss was indicted on four
particularly concentrated wave of bombings in the counts of first-degree murder.
spring of 1963. (One repeatedly bombed neighbor- During the ensuing trial, Chambliss’s niece,
hood became known as “Dynamite Hill.”) Bomb Elizabeth Cobbs, testified about her uncle’s Ku Klux
threats at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church were Klan activities. Cobbs stated that Chambliss was a
an “everyday occurrence,” according to Rev. John member of “Klavern 13,” also known as the “Cahaba
H. Cross. Boys,” a secretive militant group of Klansmen that had
At 10:22 on the morning of Sunday, September 15, terrorized the black community in Birmingham for
1963, a dynamite bomb exploded while church mem- years and was suspected of many of the area bombings.
bers were readying themselves for the 11 A.M. service. Another witness placed Chambliss in a parked car
Four girls—11-year-old Denise McNair, 14-year-old across the street from the church in the hours before the
Carole Robertson, 14-year-old Cynthia Wesley, and explosion. On November 18, 1977, Chambliss, then
14-year-old Addie Mae Collins—were preparing for 73 years old, was convicted of murder in the death of
Sunday School in the church basement. All were Denise McNair and sentenced to life in prison.
killed in the blast. Although Rev. Cross urged church Although Baxley repeatedly asserted that others
members to return to their homes, many took to the involved in the bombing would face prosecution, the
streets, throwing rocks at passing cars driven by case languished for more than two decades. In 1980,
whites. By the end of the day, riots and fires had the Justice Department concluded that Hoover had
broken out throughout the city and two other black actively blocked evidence that could have been used
teenagers were dead. to convict the Klansmen in 1965, but no new charges