| 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing |
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The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing was a racially motivated Terrorist Incident at Birmingham, Alabama 's 16th Street Baptist Church that proved to be a turning point of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s . The attack was designed to incite fear into the community supporting the civil rights movement. Instead, it created a public outrage and spurred the civil rights movement on to success. The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was a rallying point for many of civil rights activities. On Sunday, September 15 , 1963 , Ku Klux Klan members Bobby Frank Cherry and Robert Edward Chambliss (aka ''Dynamite Bob'') planted 19 sticks of Dynamite in the basement of the Church. At about 10:25 AM, they exploded. Four young girls — Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair — were killed in the blast, while 22 more were injured. Outrage at the bombing and the grief that followed helped ensure the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act Of 1964 . Chambliss was initially charged for the murders but there was no conviction. Years later it was found that the FBI had accumulated evidence against the bombers that had not been revealed to the prosecutors, by order of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover . In 1977 , Chambliss was prosecuted by Alabama Attorney-General Bill Baxley and was convicted for the murders and sentenced to several terms of life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1985 . After reopening the case several times, in 2000 the FBI assisted the state authorities in bringing charges against Cherry and Thomas Blanton . Blanton and Cherry were convicted by state court juries and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry, who always denied his involvement, died on November 18 , 2004 . The song "Birmingham Sunday", composed by Richard Farina and recorded by Joan Baez , chronicled the events and aftermath of the bombing. 4 Little Girls , a 1997 documentary about the bombing, directed by Spike Lee , was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Documentary". REFERENCES
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