The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a Ku Klux Klan dynamite attack in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday, September 15, 1963, that killed four Black girls during Sunday school and injured more than twenty other people. The church had been the organizing hub of that year’s desegregation campaign, and the murders helped push the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress. Three of the four Klansmen the FBI identified as bombers were eventually convicted of murder, though the first conviction did not come until 1977 and the last not until 2002.
What Happened on September 15, 1963
Four members of the United Klans of America planted nineteen sticks of dynamite outside the basement at the rear of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The bomb detonated at approximately 10:22 a.m. during Sunday school. It destroyed the rear of the building, blew out the exterior steps, and shattered all but one of the stained glass windows.1Jim Crow Museum. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Four girls were killed:
- Addie Mae Collins, 14
- Cynthia Wesley, 14
- Carole Robertson, 14
- Denise McNair, 11
More than twenty other people were injured, many of them children who had been in the same group as the victims.2FBI. Baptist Street Church Bombing Sarah Collins, Addie Mae’s sister, survived the blast but lost her right eye.3National Park Service. 16th Street Baptist
The violence spread through the city that same day. Johnny Robinson, 16, was shot in the back by Birmingham police officer Jack Parker after Robinson and other youths were seen throwing rocks at a car.4PBS Frontline. Johnny Robinson Virgil Ware, 13, was fatally shot while riding his bicycle on a road outside the city by a white teenager who had attended a segregationist rally earlier that day. Parker was never indicted. Ware’s killer was convicted of second-degree manslaughter by an all-white jury, sentenced to seven months, and had the sentence suspended after being placed on probation.5U.S. Department of Justice. Virgil Ware Notice to Close File
Why the Church Was a Target
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was not chosen at random. In 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights had made the church the operational base of a coordinated campaign against segregation in Birmingham. Many protest marches stepped off directly from its front steps.6Searchable Museum. Pushing for Permanent Change
The most visible chapter of that campaign began on May 2, 1963, when the Reverend James Bevel organized what became known as the Children’s Crusade. Because adult protesters risked losing their jobs, Bevel recruited students. Shortly after 1:00 p.m., roughly fifty children emerged from the church singing hymns and marched two by two toward city hall. As the first were arrested, more came out behind them. Over a thousand young people took part on the first day alone, some as young as six.7Encyclopaedia Britannica. Birmingham Children’s Crusade
Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor used squad cars and school buses to move at least 600 arrested children to jails, juvenile detention, and a local fairgrounds. With the jails overflowing the next day, Connor ordered officers to use nightsticks, police dogs, and high-pressure fire hoses against the demonstrators.7Encyclopaedia Britannica. Birmingham Children’s Crusade Images of that response reached audiences worldwide and forced a tentative desegregation agreement on May 10. The bombing came four months later.
Birmingham was already known as “Bombingham,” a nickname earned from roughly fifty unsolved explosions targeting Black residents and institutions since the late 1940s.8John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Sixteenth Street Church Bombing
National Reaction and the Civil Rights Act
The killing of four children in a house of worship shocked the country. Martin Luther King Jr. sent a telegram to Alabama Governor George Wallace declaring, “The blood of our little children is on your hands.”3National Park Service. 16th Street Baptist More than 8,000 people attended a public funeral for three of the girls at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, with no city or state officials present.1Jim Crow Museum. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church King delivered the eulogy on September 18, calling the girls “martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.”9Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute. Birmingham Campaign
President Kennedy had already submitted civil rights legislation to Congress in June 1963. The bombing added moral urgency to that fight, and together with Kennedy’s assassination two months later, it helped build the political support that produced the Civil Rights Act of 1964.3National Park Service. 16th Street Baptist
The FBI Investigation and Why Charges Stalled
The FBI’s Birmingham office opened its investigation the same day, flying bomb experts in by military jet. At its peak, thirty-six agents were assigned to the case, which the bureau internally called “BAPBOMB.” Investigators conducted thousands of interviews, administered polygraph tests, and used technical surveillance to monitor Klan activity.2FBI. Baptist Street Church Bombing
By 1965, the bureau had identified four Klansmen as its primary suspects: Robert E. Chambliss, Thomas E. Blanton Jr., Bobby Frank Cherry, and Herman Frank Cash. No federal charges followed. The FBI later attributed the delay to witness reluctance and to the inadmissibility of its surveillance recordings in court at the time.2FBI. Baptist Street Church Bombing10NBC Bay Area. Last Surviving KKK Member Convicted in 1963 Alabama Church Bombing Dies in Prison The FBI has since released approximately 3,400 pages of BAPBOMB records through its online Vault.
The Convictions
Robert Chambliss, 1977
The first prosecution came fourteen years after the bombing. Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, who had been a law student when the church was bombed, made the case a priority after taking office in 1971. He received threatening hate mail from white supremacists, including a letter from Edward R. Fields, founder of the National States’ Rights Party and a Klan leader.11AL.com. Prosecutors Discuss Long Road
In November 1977, Chambliss was tried for the first-degree murder of Denise McNair. The case was built on circumstantial evidence. Chambliss’s own niece, Elizabeth H. Cobbs, testified that the day before the bombing he told her, “You just wait until after Sunday morning, and they will beg us to let them segregate.” She also said that after the explosion, while watching news coverage, he remarked, “It wasn’t meant to hurt anybody. It didn’t go off when it was supposed to.” Other witnesses placed him near the church the night before the attack.12Justia. Chambliss v. State, 373 So. 2d 1185
The jury convicted him of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison. His conviction was affirmed on appeal in 1979. He died in prison in 1985.13Birmingham Public Library. State of Alabama vs. Robert E. Chambliss Trial Records
Thomas Blanton Jr., 2001, and Bobby Frank Cherry, 2002
The case sat dormant for nearly two decades after Chambliss’s conviction. Following a 1993 meeting between FBI officials and Black ministers in Birmingham, the bureau reopened the investigation. FBI Special Agent in Charge Rob Langford assigned senior agent Bill Fleming and Birmingham Police Sergeant Ben Herren to work the case full time.14FBI. Civil Rights in the 60s Part 2 – Retired Investigators Reflect on 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
Over fifteen months, Fleming and Herren reviewed old files and recovered reel-to-reel surveillance tapes from the original investigation. The tapes included recordings of Blanton discussing the bomb plot and proved central to building a prosecutable case.14FBI. Civil Rights in the 60s Part 2 – Retired Investigators Reflect on 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
In May 2000, grand juries indicted both Blanton and Cherry. The fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, had died in 1994 and was never charged.2FBI. Baptist Street Church Bombing Blanton was convicted of murder in May 2001 and given four life sentences. He never admitted his role and died of natural causes at Donaldson prison on June 26, 2020, at age 82.10NBC Bay Area. Last Surviving KKK Member Convicted in 1963 Alabama Church Bombing Dies in Prison Cherry was convicted in a separate trial on May 22, 2002, and also received four life sentences, one for each girl killed. He died in prison on November 18, 2004.15Mississippi Today. Bobby Cherry Convicted in 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing
How the Bombing Is Remembered Today
On September 14, 2013, the day before the fiftieth anniversary, artist Elizabeth MacQueen’s “Four Spirits” sculpture was unveiled in Kelly Ingram Park, directly across from the church. The cast bronze work was funded through a community campaign that raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars.16C-SPAN. Unveiling of Four Little Girls Memorial
In May 2013, Congress enacted Public Law 113-11, authorizing a Congressional Gold Medal to be awarded posthumously to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. The bill was sponsored by Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell of Alabama and cosponsored by 296 members of the House, including the entire Alabama delegation. The medal was presented at a ceremony on September 10, 2013.17U.S. Mint. Congressional Gold Medal Awarded Posthumously to Victims of the 1963 Bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church18Congresswoman Terri Sewell. Congressional Gold Medal Bill to Honor Four Little Girls to Be Voted on in House
On January 12, 2017, President Barack Obama signed Proclamation 9565 under the Antiquities Act, establishing the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.19American Presidency Project. Proclamation 9565 – Establishment of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument The monument covers four city blocks and includes the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, St. Paul United Methodist Church, the Colored Masonic Temple, and the A.G. Gaston Motel.20Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument The church itself is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.21National Park Service. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church remains an active congregation and draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.22National Trust for Historic Preservation. Legacy of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church In 2019, the church installed a history gallery and multimedia museum in its repurposed basement, and in 2024 it received the Trustees’ Emeritus Award for Historic Site Stewardship from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.23BirminghamWatch. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Receives National Preservation Award