Four Girls Die: Birmingham Bombing Fuels Civil Rights
Four members of the Ku Klux Klan detonated a bomb under the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, killing four girls: Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11). The church had been a meeting place for civil rights organizers, and the bombing came just eighteen days after the March on Washington. The FBI identified four suspects within months but failed to prosecute. Bobby Frank Cherry was not convicted until 2002, thirty-nine years later. The bombing's brutality, especially the deaths of children, generated a wave of national outrage that directly strengthened Congressional support for the Civil Rights Act passed nine months later.
September 15, 1963
63 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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