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1963 Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Timeline |
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The 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four young girls, shocked the city of Birmingham and the world. The crime continues to haunt the city as another of the men accused of carrying out the act goes on trial nearly 40 years afterthe deadly explosion.
Eulogy for the Young Victims
of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing
By Martin Luther King, Jr.
18 September 1963 - Birmingham, Ala.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the eulogyat funeral service for three of the children - Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley - killed in the bombing. A separate service was held for the fourth victim, Carole Robertson.
Birmingham church bombing timeline
Bobby Frank Cherry
April 2, 2001 - A judge rejected a request by lawyers for Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry to move the trial out of Birmingham, Alabama. The defense argued that pre-trial publicity and the emotional nature of the case warranted a change of venue. The men face life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
May 17, 2000 -- Former Ku Klux Klan members Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry surrender to authorities after a Jefferson County, Alabama, grand jury indicts on first-degree murder charges in connection with the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four African American girls.
May 4, 2000 -- A lawyer for long-time bombing suspect Bobby Frank Cherry says his client rejected a deal in which he would receive probation if he pleaded guilty to transporting explosives over state lines. Cherry continued to deny any involvement in the bombing. Cherry was in jail in Texas on charges of raping his stepdaughter in 1971.
July 10, 1997 -- The FBI reopens its investigation into the Birmingham church bombing after a secret, year-long review.
October, 1988 -- Federal and state prosecutors reopen their investigation into the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing after Gary A. Tucker, a former bus driver dying of cancer, said he helped set the bomb. No new charges were filed.
October 29, 1985 -- Convicted bomber Robert Edward Chambliss dies of natural causes at age 81 without ever publicly admitting any role in the bombing.
1980 -- Jefferson County's district attorney reopens the case after a U.S. Justice Department report found former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had blocked evidence that prosecutors could have used. No additional charges were filed.
1977 -- Robert Edward Chambliss is convicted of one count of murder in the death of 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair, one of four African-American girls killed in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing.
1971 -- Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopens the case.
1968 -- Federal authorities pull out of the investigation without charges being filed.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in ruin
1965 -- Birmingham FBI agents recommended that at least four suspects be charged with the bombing. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover blocked the prosecution of the suspects, saying the chance of winning a conviction was "remote."
September 15, 1963 -- A dynamite bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson.
Accused Birmingham Bomber Bobby Cherry Found Mentally Competent For Trial
Bobby Frank Cherry, a former Ku Klux Klan member charged in the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls, has been found to be mentally fit for trial by a court-appointed doctor. Previous reports from a defense expert and a court-appointed doctor, found Cherry, 71, incompetent for trial.
Judge James Garrett has set a hearing for July 9 to hear medical testimony and decide if Cherry can stand trial for the murders of Addie Mae Collins, 14; Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Cynthia Wesley, 14. Cherry's trial was postponed to allow time for the evaluations.
Addie Mae Collins, 14; Carol Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Cynthia Diane Wesley, 14
Previous reports found that Cherry suffers from vascular dementia. His lawyer, Mickey Johnson, said Cherry has had a stroke and has trouble remembering things correctly and cannot assist in his defense. U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, who is prosecuting Cherry in state court, said the hearing provides the prosecution with the opportunity to present evidence that Cherry can be tried. Jones said details of Cherry's condition will be revealed at the hearing. Cherry's co-defendant, Thomas Blanton, was convicted of the murders and bombing on May, and was sentenced to life in prison. Blanton is appealing the jury's verdict.
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May 1, 2001
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- Almost 40 years after the crime, the man accused of one of the most celebrated crimes of the civil rights era was convicted of all four counts of first-degree murder Tuesday and sentenced to life in prison.
A jury of eight whites and four blacks deliberated for two hours before convicting Thomas Blanton, 62, of plotting the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four black girls who were preparing for a church youth service.
Defense attorney John Robbins said he will appeal the jury's "emotional" verdict.
Blanton was immediately taken to the Birmingham City Jail.
Prosecutors contended Blanton, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, worked with others to plot the bombing of the black church.
U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said in closing arguments that the fact the trial was taking place 38 years after the attack made it no less important.
"It's never too late for the truth to be told. It's never to late for wounds to heal. It's never too late for a man to be held accountable for his crimes," Jones told the court.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Posey said Blanton "killed these worshippers in God's house on Sunday morning because he was a man of hate.
"The defendant didn't care who he killed as long as he killed someone and as long as that person was black," Posey said. "These children must not have died in vain. Don't let the deafening blast of his bomb be what's left ringing in our ears."
Blanton has long denied any involvement in the September 15, 1963, bombing of the Sixteenth Baptist Church that killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson.
Robbins acknowledged Blanton was a "loudmouth" and a "segregationist" but said his client's foul mouth and offensive behavior in the 1960s were not enough evidence to convict him of murder.
"Fortunately, a courtroom is not a popularity contest," said Robbins, who urged the jurors not to think of the case as a chance to vindicate Birmingham, which became known for violence against civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s.
"There's people from around the country and around the world looking down on the city of Birmingham," he said. "Don't get caught up in it."
The trial, which began last Tuesday, reopened old wounds in the city. The court heard from family members whose loved ones were killed when the blast ripped through the church on a Sunday morning.
The church was a nerve center for civil rights advocates who took to the streets that year to protest Birmingham's segregation laws. As reported by the Associated Press, the bombing became a galvanizing moment for the civil rights movement, exposing the depths of racial hatred among some of its foes. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 followed.
Blanton was among a group of Klansman identified as suspects within weeks, although the Justice Department later concluded that prosecution was blocked by Director J. Edgar Hoover.
The FBI planted a hidden microphone in Blanton's apartment in 1964 and taped his conversations with Mitchell Burns, a fellow Klansman-turned-informant.
Posey reviewed the tapes for jurors, putting transcript excerpts on the video screens, according to the AP report. He read from one transcript in which Blanton describes himself to Burns as a clean-cut guy: "I like to go shooting, I like to go fishing, I like to go bombing."
Posey also quoted Blanton as saying he was through with women. "I am going to stick to bombing churches," Blanton said, according to Posey.
On one tape, Blanton was heard telling Burns that he would not be caught "when I bomb my next church." On another made in his kitchen, he is heard talking with his wife about a meeting where "we planned the bomb."
"That is a confession out of this man's mouth," said Jones, pointing to Blanton.
The defense argued that the tape made in Blanton's kitchen meant nothing because prosecutors failed to play 26 minutes of previous conversation. "You can't judge a conversation in a vacuum," Robbins said.
Robbins dismissed Blanton's conversations with Burns as just "two rednecks driving around, drinking, running their mouths." As reported by the AP, Robbins said Burns and other prosecution witnesses were liars.
Other civil rights-era cases have been revived by prosecutors in recent years, as reported by the AP. In two Mississippi cases, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in 1994 of assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers 31 years earlier and former Klan imperial wizard Sam Bowers was convicted three years ago of the 1966 firebomb-killing of an NAACP leader.
Blanton is one of four men tied to the bombing, prosecutors say. Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss was convicted of murder in 1977 and died in prison. Another suspect, Herman Cash, died before he was charged.
Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, might never face trial after Judge Garrett ruled this month that he is not mentally competent to assist his attorneys.
The church bombing came during white backlash to desegregation in Birmingham that included a series of bombings of black homes. The city became known by the insulting nickname of "Bombingham."
Many residents remain defensive of the city's reputation. Jones, who prosecuted the case in state court under a special arrangement, touched on the fact in his closing statement, as reported by the AP.
"It took a long time for Birmingham to come to grips with the fact that liberty and justice is really for all," he said.
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