The last convicted bomber in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four young African American girls has died in prison, nearly 60 years after the terror attack targeted the US civil. Omissions? All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. Updated: January 25, 2021 | Original: January 27, 2010. In his closing argument, prosecuting attorney and future U.S. Alabama sidesteps compensation for survivor of 1963 KKK Birmingham church bombing. In his opening statement to the jurors, defense attorney John Robbins acknowledged his client's affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan and his views on racial segregation. Four Black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham church bombing - History Although the credibility of Brogdon's testimony was called into dispute at the trial, forensic experts conceded that, although her account of the planting of the bombing differed from that which had been discussed in the previous perpetrators' trials, Brogdon's recollection of Cherry's account of the planting and subsequent lighting of the bomb could explain why no conclusive remnants of a timing device were discovered after the bombing. "If these cruel and tragic events can only awaken that city and state -- if they can only awaken this entire nation -- to a realization of the folly of racial injustice and hatred and violence, then it is not too late for all concerned to unite in steps toward peaceful progress before more lives are lost," Kennedy said. (Tom Self/ Birmingham News), Original caption: The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing kills four girls and also leaves a scene of devastation. His testimony was restricted to the areas of the recordings permitted into evidence. "This bombing of children was a dastardly act.". Vigilance And Victory: How The Birmingham Church Bombing - HuffPost Four young girls, ranging in age from 11 to 14, were killed in the explosion, which also caused anywhere between 14 and 22 additional injuries. [8] When the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Congress on Racial Equality became involved in a campaign to register African Americans to vote in Birmingham, tensions in the city increased. The blast killed four little girls and became a tragic marker in civil rights history.. Cherrys trial was delayed after judges ruled he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. Long-delayed trial of former Ku Klux Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr in fatal 1963 bombing of black Birmingham, Ala, church opens; another of 4 original suspects, Robert Chambliss, was convicted in . The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. The four individuals named in the FBI report were Blanton, Cash, Chambliss, and Cherry. (Upon cross-examination by defense attorney Art Hanes Jr., Cantrell conceded that Chambliss had emphatically denied bombing the church. On May 21, 2002, both prosecution and defense attorneys delivered their closing arguments to the jury. From left to right: Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. Blanton's attorneys criticized the validity and quality of the 16 tape recordings introduced as evidence,[105] arguing that the prosecution had edited and spliced the sections of the audio recording that were secretly obtained within Blanton's kitchen, reducing the entirety of the tape by 26 minutes. Birmingham church bombing case was FBI triumph The last convicted Birmingham church bomber has died in prison We all did it! (Thomas Blanton had owned a Chevrolet in 1963;[108] neither Chambliss, Cash nor Cherry had owned such a vehicle. Original caption: Alabama-Birmingham-bombings-Body being removed at 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Petts then elaborated that the inspiration for the stained-glass image was a verse from the, On the 27th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, a state historic marker was unveiled at Greenwood Cemetery, the final resting place of three of the four victims of the bombing (Carole Robertson's body had been reburied in Greenwood Cemetery in 1974, following the death of her father). (Sims and Farley were later convicted of second-degree manslaughter,[47] although the judge suspended their sentences and imposed two years' probation upon each youth. Cross had attended the same Sunday School class as the four victims on the day of the bombing and was slightly wounded in the attack. [92], Robert Chambliss died in the Lloyd Noland Hospital and Health Center on October 29, 1985, at the age of 81. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder. "[112], Blanton was sentenced to life imprisonment. Baxley also gathered evidence proving Chambliss had purchased dynamite from a store in Jefferson County less than two weeks before the bomb was planted,[74] upon the pretext the dynamite was to be used to clear land the KKK had purchased near Highway 101. Also, at that time, information from our surveillance was not admissible in court. "[124] Johnson reiterated that there was no hard evidence linking Cherry to the bombing, but only evidence attesting to his racist beliefs dating from that era, adding that the family members who had testified against him were all estranged and therefore should be considered unreliable witnesses. After Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case, Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison. Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer was a research editor at Encyclopdia Britannica. About the recordings made as Blanton conversed with Burns, Robbins emphasized that Burns had earlier testified that Blanton had never expressly said that he had made or planted the bomb. Martin said: "The cold-blooded callousness of this hate crime has not diminished by the passage of time." More than 20 other members of the congregation were injured in the blast. Although this donation was accepted,[50]:274 Martin Luther King Jr. is known to have sent Wallace a telegram saying, "the blood of four little children is on your hands. But, he warned the jury: "Just because you don't like him, that doesn't make him responsible for the bombing. Cobbs also testified that approximately one week after the bombing, she had observed Chambliss watching a news report relating to the four girls killed in the bombing. The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15 was the third bombing in 11 days, after a federal court order had come down mandating the integration of Alabamas school system. Four black girls in Alabama had been killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church a crime that shocked the country and helped fuel the civil rights movement. The day following the bombing, a young white lawyer named Charles Morgan Jr. addressed a meeting of businessmen, condemning the acquiescence of white people in Birmingham toward the oppression of Blacks. By 1963, homemade bombs set off in Birmingham's Black homes and churches were such common occurrences that the city had earned the nickname "Bombingham.". Birmingham "is synonymous to barbarism" and "needs to be protected against itself," said New York City Mayor Robert Wagner. In a 1987 interview focusing upon his recollections of the bombing, Petts recollected: "Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the deaths of those children." At left is Clara Pippen, mother of the two women. Terms of Use / Privacy Policy / Manage Newsletters, Click This case grew out of the September 15, 1963, bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in which four young black girls were killed and a number of other people injured as a result of the blast which left the church in shambles. Birmingham Public Library. [111] When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say before sentence was imposed, Blanton said: "I guess the Lord will settle it on Judgment Day. At approximately 10:22a.m., an anonymous man phoned the 16th Street Baptist Church. Brogdon also testified that Cherry had told her of his regret that children had died in the bombing, before adding his satisfaction that they would never reproduce. These deliberations continued until the following day. [99] In spite of a rebuttal argument by the defense, Judge Garrett ruled that some sections were too prejudicial, but also that portions of some audio recordings could be introduced as evidence. Following the closing arguments, the jury retired to begin their deliberations, which lasted for over six hours and continued into the following day. [120] Cherry pleaded not guilty to the charges and did not testify on his own behalf during the trial. [52] Reportedly, Carole's mother, Alpha, had expressly requested that her daughter be buried separately from the other victims. Less than one minute later, the bomb exploded. According to Vann's later testimony, Chambliss was standing "looking down toward the church, like a firebug watching his fire". Nearby buildings are left without glass in windows. [107], The trial lasted for one week. The force crumbled a stone-and-masonry wall 30 inches thick and left a crater more than 2 feet deep.Retired FBI bomb specialist Charles Killion testified that agents never determined what kind of explosive was used or how the bomb was triggered. Relatives of the four victims openly wept in relief. Photos: 1963 Birmingham church bombing | CNN ), One individual who went to the scene to help search for survivors, Charles Vann, later recollected that he had observed a solitary white man whom he recognized as Robert Edward Chambliss (a known member of the Ku Klux Klan) standing alone and motionless at a barricade. Given the state's disenfranchisement of most Black people since the turn of the century, by making voter registration essentially impossible, few of the city's Black residents were registered to vote. At this service, the Reverend C. E. Thomas told the congregation: "The greatest tribute you can pay to Carole is to be calm, be lovely, be kind, be innocent. Upon learning of the bombing at the Church, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. sent a telegram to Alabama Governor George Wallace, a staunch and vocal segregationist, stating bluntly: 'The blood of our little children is on your hands." The brutal attack and the deaths of the four little girls . Two more violent deaths that day Later that day, 13-year-old Virgil Ware, riding on the. 1963 Four Black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham church bombing On September 15, 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,. [46] When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. "[104], In addition to calling attention to flaws in the prosecution's case, the defense exposed inconsistencies in the memories of some prosecution witnesses who had testified. [8] It was the location where students were organized and trained by the SCLC Director of Direct Action, James Bevel, to participate in the 1963 Birmingham campaign's Children's Crusade after other marches had taken place. [113][114] He was incarcerated at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama. [96] They unsealed 9,000 pieces of evidence previously gathered by the FBI in the 1960s (many of these documents relating to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had not been made available to DA William Baxley in the 1970s). Fifteen sticks of dynamite were planted in the church basement, underneath what turned out to be the girls restroom. [57], Initially, investigators theorized that a bomb thrown from a passing car had caused the explosion at the 16th Street Baptist church. [103], The most crucial piece of evidence presented at Blanton's trial was an audio recording secretly taped by the FBI in June 1964, in which Blanton was recorded discussing his involvement in the bombing with his wife, who can be heard accusing her husband of conducting an affair with a woman named Waylen Vaughn two nights before the bombing. The bomb detonated at 10:19 a.m., killing Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collinsall 14 years oldand 11-year-old Denise McNair. [11], The three-story 16th Street Baptist Church was a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963. 16th Street Baptist Church bombing | History & Four Girls Resulting in the injury of 14 people and the death of four girls, the attack garnered widespread national outrage. There had been a history of mistrust between local and federal investigators. In the rubble of the 16th Street Baptist Church were the bodies of Addie Mae Collins, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14. It was meant to suck the hope out of young lives, bury their aspirations, and ensure that old fears would be propelled forward into the next generation.[146]. [50]:272, The service for Carole Rosamond Robertson was held at St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church. The files were sealed by order of J. Edgar Hoover. Birmingham church bombing set Lisa McNair on a path of love and unity On the afternoon of May 22, after the jury had deliberated for almost seven hours, the forewoman announced they had reached their verdicts: Bobby Frank Cherry was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Although never formally named as one of the conspirators by the FBI, Rowe's record of deception on the polygraph tests leaves open the possibility that Chambliss's claims may have held a degree of truth. Maxine McNair's 11-year-old daughter, Denise McNair, was the youngest of the four Black girls killed in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. Relatives of the slain girls, prosecutor Doug Jones, Alabama Chief Deputy Attorney General Alice Martin, and Jefferson County district attorney Brandon Falls each spoke at the hearing to oppose Blanton's parole. Inside the ER where four dead girls were brought 51 years ago today 35. Even though the legal system was slow to provide justice, the effect of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was immediate and significant. Sims and Farley had been riding home from an anti-integration rally which had denounced the church bombing. The Aftermath. No one ever really has known and no one will until this city becomes part of the United States. ), Both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury on May 1. [97], On May 16, 2000, a grand jury in Alabama indicted Thomas Edwin Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry on eight counts each in relation to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Jones reviewed Blanton's extensive history with the Ku Klux Klan, before referring to the audio recordings presented earlier in the trial. "[9] Birmingham's Commissioner of Public Safety, Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor,[10] led the effort in enforcing racial segregation in the city through the use of violent tactics. Maxine McNair, last living parent of a child killed in Birmingham - al 4 Little Girls - Wikipedia [132] These polygraph results had convinced some FBI agents of Rowe's culpability in the bombing. "[109], Defense attorney John Robbins reminded the jury in his closing argument that his client was an admitted segregationist and a "loudmouth", but that was all that could be proven. She died Sunday at 93. "[32], The prosecution called a total of seven witnesses to testify in their case against Blanton, including relatives of the victims, John Cross, the former pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church; an FBI agent named William Fleming, and Mitchell Burns, a former Klansman who had become a paid FBI informant. A policeman and a neighbor had each testified that Chambliss was at the home of a man named Clarence Dill on that day. [100] It concluded that vascular dementia had impaired his mind, therefore making Cherry mentally incompetent to stand trial or assist in his own defense.[101]. In the closing argument for the defense, attorney Mickey Johnson argued that Cherry had nothing to do with the bombing, and reminded the jurors that his client was not on trial for his beliefs, stating: "It seems like more time has been spent here throwing around the n-word than proving what happened in September 1963. 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