16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963)

Sun Sep 15, 1963

Image

Image: A grieving relative is led away from the site of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15th, 1963

On this day in 1963, white supremacists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 4 girls, aged 11-14, wounding 20 more. Charges were not brought against any of the perpetrators until more than a decade later.

The terrorist attack was committed by four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter who had planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.

At 10:22 am, the dynamite was detonated, blowing a hole measuring seven feet (2.1 m) in diameter in the church’s rear wall, blowing a passing motorist out of his car, and destroying several cars nearby. Four girls, Addie Mae Collins (age 14); Carol Denise McNair (age 11); Carole Robertson (age 14); and Cynthia Wesley (age 14), were killed in the attack. Approximately 20 more people were wounded.

On May 13th, 1965, local investigators and the FBI formally named Blanton, Cash, Chambliss, and Cherry as the perpetrators of the bombing, with Robert Chambliss the likely ringleader of the four, however, they did not bring charges against any of them.

Chambliss was the first to be charged for murder, finally convicted of first degree murder in 1977. In 2001 and 2002, respectively, Blanton and Cherry were sentenced to life in prison.