16th Street Baptist Church bombing

Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1963

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism[1][2] which happened at the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Three 14-year-old girls and an 11-year-old girl were killed.

Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.[3]

Although the FBI had concluded in 1965 that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had been committed by four known Klansmen and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry,[4] no prosecutions were conducted until 1977.

References

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  1. "16th Street Baptist Church bombing". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  2. Meacham, John (September 23, 2013). "Fifty Years After Bombing, Birmingham is Resurrected". Time. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  3. "Today in 1963: The Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church". ajccenter.wfu.edu. 2013-09-15. Archived from the original on 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
  4. White, Jerry (May 20, 2000). "Former Klansmen indicted for murder in 1963 bombing of Birmingham, Alabama church". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved May 27, 2019.