Sept. 15, 1963
Four girls – Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley – were murdered in Sunday school on this day by Klansmen who planted a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. The church had been targeted as a frequent gathering place for civil rights protesters, who used the building to plan nonviolent campaigns and demonstrations. The explosion galvanized a community and outraged the nation, and served as a turning point in the civil rights movement. In 1971, years after the FBI closed the case without filing charges, Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case. On Nov. 18, 1977, Robert Chambliss was tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to life in prison. Two decades passed before Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry were charged in the murder of the four girls. In 2001, Blanton was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry was tried, convicted and sentenced to life in 2002.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Choir on the steps of the church, ca. 1917. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Archives)
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham. (Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
Stained-glass window at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. (Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was rebuilt after being bombed in 1963, a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. The church is an important religious center and a popular stop in the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photograph by Justin Dubois)
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan on Sept. 15, 1963, killing four African-American girls. The tragedy incited local riots and national outrage and was a central moment leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Birmingham Public Library Archives)
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
