16th Street Baptist Church bombing

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.

16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Media

The 16th Street Baptist Church in 2005. The steps beneath which the bomb was planted can be seen in the foreground.
Congress of Racial Equality and members of the All Souls Church march in memory of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing victims on September 22, 1963
Funeral program for Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carol Denise McNair
President Lyndon Johnson signs into effect the Civil Rights Act of 1964. July 2, 1964
Prosecutor Doug Jones points toward Bobby Cherry as he delivers his closing argument to the jury. May 21, 2002
The Welsh Window. Designed by artist John Petts, the stained-glass window depicts a Black Christ with his arms outstretched; his right arm pushing away hatred and injustice, the left extended in an offering of forgiveness.
Politician Terri Sewell, with actresses from the play 4 Little Girls, pictured upon the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church (2019)