Four Girls Die: Birmingham Bombing Fuels Civil Rights

A bundle of dynamite planted beneath the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, detonated at 10:22 a.m. on September 15, 1963, tearing through the basement lounge where five young girls were preparing for the church’s Youth Day service. Four of them died: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair, the youngest at eleven years old. A fifth girl, Addie Mae’s sister Sarah, lost an eye. The bombing was the deadliest act of racial terrorism in the civil rights era and galvanized national support for federal civil rights legislation. Birmingham in 1963 was the most violently segregated city in America, earning the nickname "Bombingham" for the dozens of unsolved dynamite attacks against Black homes, churches, and businesses. The 16th Street Baptist Church had served as a rallying point for the spring desegregation campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, during which police commissioner Bull Connor turned fire hoses and attack dogs on child marchers in scenes that horrified the nation. The bombing was carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan, specifically a cell led by Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover received intelligence identifying the bombers within weeks but blocked prosecution, reportedly concerned that a trial would expose the bureau’s use of informants within the Klan. The case languished for over a decade until Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the investigation. Chambliss was convicted of murder in 1977. Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry were not convicted until 2001 and 2002, respectively. A fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died without being charged. The murders of four children in a house of worship stripped away any remaining pretense that segregation was a defensible social order. The national outrage that followed pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress, banning discrimination in public accommodations and employment. President Johnson later cited the Birmingham bombing when pressing for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The church, rebuilt and restored, was designated a National Historic Landmark and remains an active congregation.