CHURCH BOMBING IN ALABAMA TAKES LIVES OF 4 YOUNG GIRLS
Birmingham, Alabama (JFK+50) On September 15, 1963, a bomb explosion at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church here in Birmingham resulted in the deaths of four African-American girls. The victims were 11 year old Denise McNair, and three other girls who were each 14 years old: Carole Robinson, Addie Mae Collins and Cynthia Diane Wesley.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sent a telegram to President John F. Kennedy telling him that he would issue a plea for non-violence in response to the tragedy but asked that the federal government "step in."
According to Herb Boyd's account in "We Shall Overcome,"
"Nineteen sticks of dynamite placed underneath a stairwell exploded and destroyed the northeast corner of the church."
SOURCES
"JFK Day by Day: A Chronicle of the 1,036 Days of John F. Kennedy's Presidency," by Terry Golway and Les Krantz, Running Press Book Publishers, Philadelphia, 2010.
"We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement As It Happened," by Herb Boyd, Sourcebooks, Inc., Naperville, Illinois, 2004.
Birmingham, Alabama (JFK+50) On September 15, 1963, a bomb explosion at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church here in Birmingham resulted in the deaths of four African-American girls. The victims were 11 year old Denise McNair, and three other girls who were each 14 years old: Carole Robinson, Addie Mae Collins and Cynthia Diane Wesley.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sent a telegram to President John F. Kennedy telling him that he would issue a plea for non-violence in response to the tragedy but asked that the federal government "step in."
According to Herb Boyd's account in "We Shall Overcome,"
"Nineteen sticks of dynamite placed underneath a stairwell exploded and destroyed the northeast corner of the church."
SOURCES
"JFK Day by Day: A Chronicle of the 1,036 Days of John F. Kennedy's Presidency," by Terry Golway and Les Krantz, Running Press Book Publishers, Philadelphia, 2010.
"We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement As It Happened," by Herb Boyd, Sourcebooks, Inc., Naperville, Illinois, 2004.
16th Street Baptist Church
Birmingham, Alabama
Photo by John Morse (2005)
