Civil Rights workers like Martin Luther King Jr. had meetings at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. This church was located in Birmingham, Alabama. The city became filled with tension when the racial equality groups tried to register blacks to vote. On September 15, 1963 a man was seen getting out of his car holding a mysterious box. He eventually placed the box under the steps of the church. Around the time of 10:22 the box that was holding a bomb exploded. The church was filled with children attending Sunday school. The blast from the bomb killed a total of four people and injured 20. The four children that died were Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Denise was 11 and the other three were only 14 years old.
Many of the civil rights workers thought that George Wallace was to blame for the bomb. Before the bombing he had said that if segregation was to stop they might have to have “few first-class funerals.” Someone that was watching said that Robert Chambliss was the person that placed the box under the steps. He was a current member of the KKK. Chambliss was charged with murder and also for having a box that contained 122 sticks of dynamite. Robert was given a sentence of only six months because he was found not guilty of murder.
However, in 1977 he was put to trial again for the bombing. The jury said that he was guilty. They gave him a life sentence. Chambliss later died in prison. The date of his death was October 29, 1985. The FBI stated on May, 17 2000 that the bombing was done by the Cahaba Boys. The Cahaba Boys were a group of KKK members. The FBI said that Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were the people that carried out the crime.
I think that the Sixteenth Street Baptist bombing was terrible. To think that a group of people can hate people so much to kill, just because of the color of their skin. It is good that the FBI finally found out the group that was responsible for the crime. I really don’t know how they could figure out who did it 37 years later.
Sources_
http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Civ%20Rts.html
http://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/m_r/randall/birmingham.htm
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