Thomas Blanton, left, and Bobby Frank Cherry appear in court on May 19, 2000, in Birmingham after being accused of the 1963 church bombing. The girls' death and the long wait for justice raises important questions about civil rights, racism, and the nature of restorative justice. [83], In his closing argument before the jury on November 17,[84] Baxley acknowledged that Chambliss was not the sole perpetrator of the bombing. United States Attorney General Eric Holder was stricken with emotion Sunday in Birmingham, Ala., as he reflected on the murder of four young girls . Such a lack of evidence isnt unusual in powerful explosions, he said, because bomb components often are destroyed.However, defense attorney Mickey Johnson hammered at the lack of evidence. "[45], Two more Black youths, Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware, were shot to death in Birmingham within seven hours of the Sunday morning bombing. The story of the decades-long fight to bring justice to the victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, culminating in Sen. Doug Jones' prosecution of the last living bombers. Herman Frank Cash died of cancer in February 1994. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. Best Known For: Addie Mae Collins was a 14-year-old murder victim whose 1963 death focused public attention on racial violence in the South. Officially, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing remained unsolved until after William Baxley was elected Attorney General of Alabama in January 1971. Seven witnesses testified on behalf of the prosecution, and two for the defense. [92], Robert Chambliss died in the Lloyd Noland Hospital and Health Center on October 29, 1985, at the age of 81. It was meant to suck the hope out of young lives, bury their aspirations, and ensure that old fears would be propelled forward into the next generation.[146]. [57], Initially, investigators theorized that a bomb thrown from a passing car had caused the explosion at the 16th Street Baptist church. 16th Street Church Bombing Part 32 of 51 pages(1-249) View. Also present was Martin Luther King Jr. The day following the bombing, a young white lawyer named Charles Morgan Jr. addressed a meeting of businessmen, condemning the acquiescence of white people in Birmingham toward the oppression of Blacks. The blast, erupting from the church's east side, sprayed mortar and bricks, caving in the building's walls. Although the credibility of Brogdon's testimony was called into dispute at the trial, forensic experts conceded that, although her account of the planting of the bombing differed from that which had been discussed in the previous perpetrators' trials, Brogdon's recollection of Cherry's account of the planting and subsequent lighting of the bomb could explain why no conclusive remnants of a timing device were discovered after the bombing. [48]:386 On September 29, he was indicted upon charges of illegally purchasing and transporting dynamite on September 4, 1963. He was able to build trust with key witnesses, some of whom had been reluctant to testify in the first investigation. [104] He said: "You've got to have a meeting to plan a bomb. [116], His first parole hearing was held on August 3, 2016. The Birmingham Blitz was the heavy bombing by the Nazi German Luftwaffe of the city of Birmingham and surrounding towns in central England, beginning on 9 August 1940 as a fraction of the greater Blitz, which was part of the Battle of Britain; and ending on 23 April 1943.Situated in the Midlands, Birmingham, the most populous British city outside London, was considered an important industrial . Baxley also gathered evidence proving Chambliss had purchased dynamite from a store in Jefferson County less than two weeks before the bomb was planted,[74] upon the pretext the dynamite was to be used to clear land the KKK had purchased near Highway 101. Although sections of the recordingpresented in evidence on April 27are unintelligible, Blanton can twice be heard mentioning the phrase "plan a bomb" or "plan the bomb". After Baxley requested access to the original FBI files on the case, he learned that evidence accumulated by the FBI against the named suspects between 1963 and 1965 had not been revealed to the local prosecutors in Birmingham. This week, a series of events leading up to the bombing's 50th anniversary on Sunday will commemorate the lives of the girls and the sweeping societal changes sparked by their deaths with the . Death Year: 1963, Death date: September 15, 1963, Death State: Alabama, Death City: Birmingham, Death Country: United States, Article Title: Addie Mae Collins Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime/addie-mae-collins, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: September 4, 2019, Original Published Date: April 3, 2014. She was distressed about a remark made by Martin Luther King, who had said that the mindset that enabled the murder of the four girls was the "apathy and complacency" of Black people in Alabama. The bombing occurred on Sept. 15, 1963, a Sunday, at the 16th Street Baptist Church, which had been a center of civil rights activity in Birmingham. [11], Black and white residents of Birmingham had access to different public amenities such as water fountains and places of public gathering such as movie theaters. 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. London, United Kingdom: Peter . September 18, 1963, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama Delivered at funeral service for three of the children - Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley - killed in the bombing. Each received a $100 fine (the equivalent of $972 as of 2023[update]) and a suspended 180-day jail sentence. Governor Wallace offered an additional $5,000 on behalf of the state of Alabama. In a 1987 interview focusing upon his recollections of the bombing, Petts recollected: "Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the deaths of those children." A policeman and a neighbor had each testified that Chambliss was at the home of a man named Clarence Dill on that day. The victims were Addie Mae Collins,14, Denise McNair,11,Carole Robertson,14, Cynthia Wesley, 14. On September 15,1963, a bomb went off at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. 35. Original caption: Alabama-Birmingham-bombings-Body being removed at 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. [20], One of the key witnesses to testify on behalf of the prosecution was the Reverend Elizabeth Cobbs, Chambliss's niece. The deaths in a sense, are on the hands of each of us. The case remained dormant until 1971, when Attorney General William Baxley reopened it. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Maxine McNair, the last living parent of any of the four Black girls killed in a 1963 Alabama church bombing, died Sunday. The church's pastor, the Reverend John Cross Jr., attempted to placate the crowd by loudly reciting the 23rd Psalm through a bullhorn. Sun 15 Sep 2013 10.04 EDT. In 2013, the United States Congress awarded each girl the Congressional Gold Medal. [66] This information was relayed to the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover;[67] however, no prosecutions of the four suspects ensued. At this service, the Reverend C. E. Thomas told the congregation: "The greatest tribute you can pay to Carole is to be calm, be lovely, be kind, be innocent. [68] Later the same year, J. Edgar Hoover formally blocked any impending federal prosecutions against the suspects,[69] and refused to disclose any evidence his agents had obtained with state or federal prosecutors.[70]. I haven't done anything! [49], The city of Birmingham initially offered a $52,000 reward for the arrest of the bombers. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, newly-inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson continued to press for passage of the civil rights bill sought by his predecessor. [106] The defense portrayed the audiotapes introduced into evidence as the statements of "two rednecks driving around, drinking" and making false, ego-inflating claims to one another. (A 1980 Justice Department report concluded that J. Edgar Hoover had blocked the prosecution of the four bombing suspects in 1965,[7] and he officially closed the FBI's investigation in 1968. But by September 20, the FBI was able to confirm that the explosion had been caused by a device that was purposely planted beneath the steps to the church,[59] close to the women's lounge. [121] (A fishing float attached to a section of wire, which may have been part of a timing device, was found 20 feet (6.1m) from the explosion crater[87] following the bombing. Blanton's attorneys criticized the validity and quality of the 16 tape recordings introduced as evidence,[105] arguing that the prosecution had edited and spliced the sections of the audio recording that were secretly obtained within Blanton's kitchen, reducing the entirety of the tape by 26 minutes. [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. Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Addie Mae Collins, Birth Year: 1949, Birth date: April 18, 1949, Birth State: Alabama, Birth City: Birmingham, Birth Country: United States. Gold Medal 1-249 ) View Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham officially, the 16th Street Church bombing and neighbor. On behalf of the prosecution, and two for the defense January 1971 being removed at birmingham church bombing victims autopsy Church! 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