16th Street Baptist Church bombing
Also known as: Birmingham church bombing
- Active
- 1963–1963
- Region
- Birmingham, Alabama, USA
- State
- AL
- Kind
- Mass
- Status
- Convicted
- Victims
- 4
On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, a dynamite bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, a center of the civil rights movement. It killed four girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, and injured many others. Two more Black children, Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware, were shot dead in Birmingham later that day in separate incidents. Justice took decades: Robert Chambliss was convicted in 1977, and after the FBI reopened the case, Thomas Blanton Jr. was convicted in 2001 and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002. A fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died in 1994 without being charged. All of the men are now dead.
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Victims
We remember the people whose lives were taken.
- Addie Mae Collins, 14 · September 15, 1963
- Carol Denise McNair, 11 · September 15, 1963
- Carole Rosamond Robertson, 14 · September 15, 1963
- Cynthia Dionne Wesley, 14 · September 15, 1963
Timeline of locations
- September 15, 196316th Street Baptist Church (Crime scene)
The bomb, planted under the church steps, went off at about 10:22 a.m. on a Sunday, as children were preparing for services. Four girls were killed in a basement area of the church.
- November 14, 1977Jefferson County Courthouse, Birmingham (Court / trial)
Robert Chambliss was tried here and convicted on November 18, 1977. Thomas Blanton Jr. (May 1, 2001) and Bobby Frank Cherry (May 22, 2002) were later convicted by Birmingham juries before Jefferson County Circuit Judge James Garrett, each receiving life in prison.
- 2001William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility (Prison, approximate area)
Blanton was serving his life sentences at Donaldson prison near Bessemer when he died of natural causes on June 26, 2020, the last of the three convicted bombers.
- 2002Kilby Correctional Facility, Mount Meigs (Prison)
Cherry was taken to Kilby for intake, later held at Holman Correctional Facility, and died in Kilby's hospital unit on November 18, 2004.
- September 2013Kelly Ingram Park (Four Spirits memorial) (Other)
Across the street from the church, the "Four Spirits" sculpture honoring the four girls was unveiled for the 50th anniversary of the bombing. The same year the girls were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Watch, listen, read
Watch
- 4 Little Girls (1997, Spike Lee)
Read
- Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights (2019, Doug Jones)
Sources
- 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (Wikipedia)
- Thomas Blanton, KKK bomber of 16th St Baptist Church, dies (AP via KSL)
- Alabama church bomb trial verdict - Guilty (UPI, 2002)
- Thomas E. Blanton Trial (Alabama Church Bombing) - 2001 (Encyclopedia.com)
Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.