SIXTEENTH STREET CHURCH BOMBING

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2071

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF BIRMINGHAM CHURCH BOMBING, IT'S STILL A CONVERSATION WE ARE HAVING

Birmingham, Alabama (JFK+50)  Yesterday, September 15, 2016 marked the 53rd anniversary of the bombing at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church here in Birmingham which resulted in the deaths of four black girls.

At 10:22 local time, the exact time of the explosion, the church bells rang out in commemoration of the lives lost.  Brit Moorer of WIAT quotes Ahmad Ward of the Black Civil Rights Institute as saying...

"The sheer humanity of young people dying for no reason and the cost or the value of black bodies...that's a conversation we're still having."

On September 16, 1963, 53 years ago today, President John F. Kennedy issued the following statement in response to the previous day's bombing


"I know I speak on behalf of all Americans in expressing a deep sense of outrage and grief over the killing of the children yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama. 

It is regrettable that public disparagement of law and order has encouraged violence which has fallen on the innocent. 

 If these cruel and tragic events...can only awaken this entire Nation--to a realization of the folly of racial injustice and hatred and violence, then it is not too late for all concerned to unite in steps toward peaceful progress...

Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall* has returned to Birmingham to be of assistance...and bomb specialists of the FBI are there to lend every assistance in the detection of those responsible...

This Nation is committed to a course of domestic justice and tranquility--and I call upon every citizen, white and Negro, North and South, to put passions and prejudices aside and to join in this effort."


*Burke Marshall (1922-2003) was born in Plainfield, NJ.  He served in the US Army intelligence corps during WWII and received his law degree from Yale in 1951.  

Marshall worked 10 years at the Covington and Burling Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in anti-trust law and was appointed assistant attorney general by RFK in 1961.

From 1961-1964, BM was head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.  He died at his home in Newtown, Connecticut.

SOURCES

"53rd anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing," by Brit Moorer, September 15, 2016, WIAT, www.wiat.com/

"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States:  John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.

16th Street Baptist Church

Birmingham, Alabama 
Photo by John Morse (2005)

SUNDAY CHURCH BOMBING IN BIRMINGHAM

September 15, 2013

SUNDAY CHURCH BOMBING IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

Birmingham, Alabama (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, September 15, 1963, a bomb explosion at the 16th Street Baptist Church here in Birmingham resulted in the deaths of four African-American girls.

The victims included 11 year old Denise McNair, 14 year old Carole Robinson, 14 year old Addie Mae Collins and 14 year old Cynthia Diane Wesley.

The four young girls were attending Sunday school classes when the blast decimated their classroom wall.

16th Street Baptist Church

Birmingham, Alabama

Photo by John Morse (2005)

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."

The leader of the Civil Rights Movement sent another telegram to Alabama Governor George C. Wallace.  

Dr. King said...

"Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder."

16th Street was the largest black church in the city.  

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."

Boyd writes that the church's pastor, John H. Cross, tried to calm the crowd as police arrived and, in fact, stopped a woman from throwing a brick at a police officer because she thought the police had been in on the bombing.

Civil rights activist John Lewis, who arrived in Birmingham a few hours after the bombing, said...

"I remained there for the funeral...and it still pains me when I go and visit Birmingham even today..."

According to Diane McWhorter, the church was targeted because its members were active in the Movement and it was just across from Kelly Ingram Park where dogs and fire hoses had been used on civil rights marchers.

In addition to the 4 dead, more than 20 more people were injured in the bombing.

In the afternoon two more black youngsters, 16 year old Johnny Robinson and 13 year old Virgil Ware, were shot by police.

Governor Wallace sent 500 National Guardsmen along with 300 State Troopers to the city.

The first of the four girls to be buried was Carole Robinson. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth said at the service...

"You by your loss have made a payment on this great thing called freedom."

The other three girls were buried a day later with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering the eulogy.

Dr. King said...

"They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity."

In 1965, FBI agents recommended four suspects should be charged in connection with the murders, but Director J. Edgar Hoover blocked prosecution.

In the mid 1970s, however, charges were finally brought against Robert Chambliss, a former KKK member.  He was convicted of first degree murder in the death of Denise McNair.

Another suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died before charges could be brought against him.

In May 2000, Thomas Blanton, Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry were indicted  and charged with four counts of first degree murder.  Blanton was found guilty and sentenced  to life and a year later Cherry was convicted and received the same sentence.

The 16th Street Baptist Church has become a shrine of the Civil Rights Movement.  It receives more than 80,000 visitors each year.

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.

Stained Glass Window

the 16th Street Baptist Church

Birmingham, Alabama

Given in Memory of the 4 Girls

by the People of Wales

Photo by Jet Lowe (1993)

BIRMINGHAM POLICE USED FIRE HOSES AND DOGS ON CIVIL RIGHTS PROTESTERS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

BIRMINGHAM POLICE USED FIRE HOSES AND DOGS ON CIVIL RIGHTS  PROTESTERS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

Birmingham, Alabama (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, May 3, 1963, fire hoses and police dogs were turned on hundreds of civil rights protesters in what was then called "the most segregated city in America."

With Birmingham's jail cells full to capacity, Police Chief Eugene "Bull" Connor made the decision to respond to the civil rights protests with violence.

The circumstances surrounding this event can be traced back to May 1962 when the leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference decided to target segregation in Birmingham.

By January 1963, their strategy had been given the title "PROJECT C" with the "C" standing for confrontation.

That same month, GEORGE C. WALLACE was inaugurated Governor of the state of ALABAMA.  In his inaugural address in Montgomery, he said...

"I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

The protests in Birmingham began in April 1963 with sit-ins.  Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth*, the spiritual leader of the black community, was arrested along with his followers and by May 2nd, hundreds of youth were recruited to join the protests.

Thousands gathered at the 16th Street Baptist Church and began to march across Kelly Ingram Park where they were warned to STOP by the Birmingham Police.

*Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth (1922-2011), co-founder of SCLC, was born in Mt. Meigs, Albama and became pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1953.

In 1956, as Membership Chairman for the State NAACP, Rev. Shuttlesworth's home was bombed and destroyed.  

He took part in sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in 1960 and in the Freedom Rides of 1961.  FLS was also involved in the Selma Voting Rights Movement and in 2001 received the Presidential Citizens Medal from Bill Clinton.

            16th Street Baptist Church
               Birmingham, Alabama
    Library of Congress Image (1993)

Then, as they continued to march, fire hoses and police dogs were turned on them.  This scene was viewed across the nation and around the world on television.

That evening, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said...

"The eyes of the world are on Birmingham.  We've gone too far to turn back now."

SOURCE

"We Shall Overcome," by Herb Boyd, Sourcebooks, Media Fusion, Naperville, Illinois, 2004.

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