birmingham church bombing victims autopsy

"It was just a matter of time," said Pastor John H. Cross of the bombing. In the early morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963, four members of the United Klans of AmericaThomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Robert Edward Chambliss,[19] Bobby Frank Cherry, and (allegedly) Herman Frank Cashplanted a minimum of 15 sticks[20] of dynamite with a time delay under the steps of the church, close to the basement. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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. Seven witnesses testified on behalf of the prosecution, and two for the defense. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States during the civil rights movement and also contributed to support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by Congress. [1][2][3] Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter planted 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.[4]. Thomas Blanton, Who Bombed a Birmingham Church, Dies at 82 Following Cook's testimony, Baxley introduced police sergeant Ernie Cantrell. [11], Black and white residents of Birmingham had access to different public amenities such as water fountains and places of public gathering such as movie theaters. A well-known Klan member, Robert Chambliss, was charged with murder and with buying 122 sticks of dynamite. This appeal was dismissed on May 22, 1979. Following the bombing, the 16th Street Baptist Church remained closed for over eight months, as assessments and, later, repairs were conducted upon the property. The crime was calculated, not random. Chambliss v. State :: 1979 :: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals "[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. The bomb that demolished the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church downstairs lounge, shattered the sanctuary's stained-glass windows, hurled large chunks of stone into nearby automobiles and. "The answer should be, "We all did it." [92], Robert Chambliss died in the Lloyd Noland Hospital and Health Center on October 29, 1985, at the age of 81. Martin Luther King Jr. said he hoped the deaths "may well serve as the redemptive force that brings light to this dark city.". In 1968, the FBI formally closed their investigation into the bombing without filing charges against any of their named suspects. Birmingham Bombing Anniversary Photos: 16th Street Church Then, Now "[24] Another witness to testify was William Jackson, who testified as to his joining the KKK in 1963 and becoming acquainted with Chambliss shortly thereafter. She is the daughter of the Reverend John Cross and was aged 13 in 1963. A fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died in 1994 before he could be brought to trial. [33], Between 14 and 22 additional people were injured in the explosion,[34][35] one of whom was Addie Mae's younger sister, 12-year-old Sarah Collins. [106] The defense portrayed the audiotapes introduced into evidence as the statements of "two rednecks driving around, drinking" and making false, ego-inflating claims to one another. No one ever really has known and no one will until this city becomes part of the United States. Life is hard. Continuing to maintain his innocence, Chambliss died in prison in 1985. This decision was later reversed. Saturday was the 55th anniversary of the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. He had repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, insisting Gary Thomas Rowe Jr. was the actual perpetrator. Alabama Governor George Wallace was a leading foe of desegregation, and Birmingham had one of the strongest and most violent chapters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Pictured here are Johnny Robinson (left), 16, and Virgil Ware, 13. Resulting in the injury of 14 people and the death of four girls, the attack garnered widespread national outrage. 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. 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. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, newly-inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson continued to press for passage of the civil rights bill sought by his predecessor. Corrections? The NAACP questioned the speed of the investigation and whether all resources available were being utilized. [85] He expressed regret that the state was unable to request the death penalty in this case, as the death penalty in effect in the state in 1963 had been repealed. Throughout the civil rights movement, Birmingham was a major site of protests, marches, and sit-ins that were often met with police brutality and violence from white citizens. (The first three schools in Birmingham to be integrated would do so on September 4. [121] (A fishing float attached to a section of wire, which may have been part of a timing device, was found 20 feet (6.1m) from the explosion crater[87] following the bombing. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. According to Cobbs, Chambliss had said: "It [the bomb] wasn't meant to hurt anybody it didn't go off when it was supposed to. These instructions were relayed to the crowd present by a single youth with a bullhorn. Chris McNair and his wife, Maxine, hold a photograph of their daughter Denise the day after her death in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham . On May 22, 2002, Cherry was convicted and sentenced to life, bringing a long-awaited victory to the friends and families of the four young victims. Several dozen people were present at the unveiling, presided over by state Senator. The city of Birmingham, Alabama, was founded in 1871 and rapidly became the states most important industrial and commercial center. The bomb injured at least 20 people and killed four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. [88] He was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder. A 16-year-old white youth named Larry Sims fired the gun (given to him by another youth named Michael Farley) at Ware, who was sitting on the handlebars of a bicycle ridden by his brother. He and two acquaintances, John Hall and Charles Cagle, were each convicted in state court upon a charge of illegally possessing and transporting dynamite on October 8. In October 1963, Chambliss was cleared of the murder charge and received a six-month jail sentence and a $100 fine for the dynamite. Blanton was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. King later spoke before 8,000 people at the funeral for three of the girls (the family of the fourth girl held a smaller private service), fueling the public outrage now mounting across the country. Ten-year-old Sarah Collins, who was also in the restroom at the time of the explosion, lost her right eye, and more than 20 other people were injured in the blast. Original caption: Juanita Jones, center, comforts her sister, Maxine McNair, whose daughter Denise McNair died earlier that day in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. A later report stated: "By 1965, we had [four] serious suspectsnamely Thomas Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry, all Klan membersbut witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. He was able to build trust with key witnesses, some of whom had been reluctant to testify in the first investigation. President Barack Obama would go on to sign a bill awarding the four young victims of the tragic 1963 Birmingham church bombing with the Congressional Gold Medal.. Barbara Cross, a friend of the girls who survived the church bombing, once recounted to TIME how close she was to possibly being the fifth person killed. We all did it. Every person in this community who has in any way contributed during the past several years to the popularity of hatred is at least as guilty, or more so, than the demented fool who threw that bomb," Morgan said. 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Photos and Premium - Getty Images Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Terms of Use / Privacy Policy / Manage Newsletters, Click Prosecutors at Chambliss's 1977 trial had initially intended to call Rowe as a witness; however, DA William Baxley had chosen not to call Rowe as a witness after being informed of the results of these polygraph tests. Shortly thereafter, she had heard "the most horrible noise", before being struck on the head by debris. Original caption: NEWS FILE/TOM SELF A stained glass window bears testament to a bomb's damage; Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, September 15, 1963. Inside the ER where four dead girls were brought 51 years ago today That same day, news reports described the federal hunt for the bombers as rivaling the search for John Dillinger. Birmingham church bombing set Lisa McNair on a path of love and unity The church was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and Fred Shuttlesworth, for organizing and educating marchers. Chambliss had been indicted by a grand jury on September 24, 1977, charged with four counts of murder, for each dead child in the 1963 church bombing. [7] Herman Cash died in 1994, and was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing. He was 82 years old. The last convicted Birmingham church bomber has died in prison Both the church and the bereaved families received an estimated $23,000 in cash donations from members of the public. Of the nearly 200 congregants inside, attending Sunday school classes and preparing for the 11 a.m. service, about 22 were injured. [13][15], Civil Rights activists and leaders in Birmingham fought against the city's deeply-ingrained and institutionalized racism with tactics that included the targeting of Birmingham's economic and social disparities. In this speech, Morgan lamented: "Who did it [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. Blanton, however, hired a lawyer and refused to answer any questions. The case was reopened in 1980, in 1988, and finally again in 1997, when two other former clan membersThomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherrywere brought to trial. As late as the 1960s, however, it was also one of Americas most racially discriminatory and segregated cities. Following the closing arguments, the jury retired to begin their deliberations, which lasted for over six hours and continued into the following day. Noting that no timing device was found, he disputed the governments long-held theory the bomb was planted by KKK members hours before the explosion.Mr. Published: Sep. 15, 2022, 1:26 p.m. 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. We all did it! The service honoring Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley and two young boys killed shortly after the bombing, Johnny Robinson Jr. and Virgil Ware, recognized Birmingham as the center of the Civil Rights movement and emphasized that the march to justice and equality of all people is not over. 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. The bells of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., tolled Monday in remembrance of the four girls who were killed in a bombing at the church 40 years ago. He said that the sections introduced as evidence were of poor audio quality, resulting in the prosecution presenting text transcripts of questionable accuracy to the jury. Despite repeated demands that the perpetrators be brought to justice, the first trial in the case was not held until 1977, when former clan member Robert E. Chambliss was convicted of murder (Chambliss, who continued to maintain his innocence, died in prison in 1985). [81] He testified that Chambliss had visited his headquarters in 1976 and that he had attempted to affix the blame for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing upon an altogether different member of the KKK. His testimony was restricted to the areas of the recordings permitted into evidence. Less than one minute later, the bomb exploded. Governor Wallace offered an additional $5,000 on behalf of the state of Alabama. Barbara Ann Cross also testified for the prosecution. Following these closing arguments, the jury retired to consider their verdicts. Precisely because of its reputation as a stronghold for white supremacy, civil rights activists made Birmingham a major focus of their efforts to desegregate the Deep South. [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. On November 18, 1977,[87] they found Robert Chambliss guilty of the murder of Carol Denise McNair. The bombing occurred on Sept. 15, 1963, a Sunday, at the 16th Street Baptist Church, which had been a center of civil rights activity in Birmingham. Robinson, aged 16, was shot in the back by a policeman as he fled down an alley,[43] after ignoring police orders to halt. Relatives of the four victims openly wept in relief. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. [11] The intentional scope of these activities was to see the end of segregation across Birmingham and the South as a whole. Stressing that Blanton should not be judged for his beliefs, Robbins again vehemently criticized the validity and poor quality of the audio recordings presented, and the selectivity of the sections which had been introduced into evidence. He became a paid FBI informant in 1961.

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