Four black girls. Several dozen people were present at the unveiling, presided over by state Senator. [40] Police urged parents of Black and white youths to keep their children indoors, as the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, ordered an additional 300 state police and 500 Alabama National Guardsmen to assist in quelling unrest. [78][79], Chambliss pleaded not guilty to the charges, insisting that although he had purchased a case of dynamite less than two weeks before the bombing, he had given the dynamite to a Klansman and FBI agent provocateur named Gary Thomas Rowe Jr.[80], To discredit Chambliss's claims that Rowe had committed the bombing, prosecuting attorney William Baxley introduced two law enforcement officers to testify as to Chambliss's inconsistent claims of innocence. In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not become bitter We must not lose faith in our white brothers. 16th Street Baptist Church interior after the bombing . AP While the FBI concluded in 1965 that the. Cherry, a 71-year-old retired truck driver, is accused of being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a bomb outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a rallying place for civil rights protesters in the early 1960s. [26], The explosion blew a hole measuring seven feet (2.1m) in diameter in the church's rear wall, and a crater five feet (1.5m) wide and two feet (0.61m) deep in the ladies' basement lounge, destroying the rear steps to the church and blowing a passing motorist out of his car. From left to right: Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14. As late as the 1960s, however, it was also one of Americas most racially discriminatory and segregated cities. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. [39], Violence escalated in Birmingham in the hours following the bombing, with reports of groups of Black and white youth throwing bricks and shouting insults at each other. )[22]:63. Or, continue scrolling for the photos of the historic event. Thomas Blanton, left, and Bobby Frank Cherry appear in court on May 19, 2000, in Birmingham after being accused of the 1963 church bombing. Original caption: Alabama-Birmingham-bombings-Body being removed at 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. A later report stated: "By 1965, we had [four] serious suspectsnamely Thomas Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry, all Klan membersbut witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. [60] By the time of the announcement, Herman Cash had also died; however, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were still alive. [62][63] At the time, no federal charges were filed against Chambliss or any of his fellow conspirators in relation to the bombing. Martin Luther King Jr. said he hoped the deaths "may well serve as the redemptive force that brings light to this dark city.".
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