16th Street Baptist Church bombing

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The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. The bombing was committed by the white supremacist terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Four members of a local KKK chapter planted 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church. Described by Martin Luther King Jr. as "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity," the explosion at the church killed four girls and injured between 14 and 22 other people. The 1965 investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation determined the bombing had been committed by four known KKK members and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry. However, it was not until 1977 that the first suspect, Robert Chambliss, was prosecuted by Attorney General of Alabama William "Bill" Baxley and convicted of the...

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