The Klan Bombs the 16th Street Baptist Church, Killing Four Girls
Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley die in a Sunday morning bombing meant to terrorize Birmingham's Black community
Quick facts
- Location
- 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama
- Killed
- Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley
- Last conviction
- Bobby Frank Cherry, 2002
What happened
Just before 11 a.m. on Sunday, September 15, 1963, a bomb planted by Ku Klux Klan members exploded under the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, a church that had served as a staging ground for the spring's Children's Crusade marches. The blast killed four girls in the basement, 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, and Carole Robertson, and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley; Collins's sister Sarah survived but lost an eye. Robert Chambliss was convicted of murder in 1977, but Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry were not convicted until 2001 and 2002, decades after the bombing.
Why it matters
The bombing of children at Sunday school, coming weeks after the March on Washington, hardened Northern public opinion in favor of federal civil rights legislation, and its slow prosecution over four decades became a case study in how long Southern justice systems protected white supremacist violence.
How we know
The National Park Service documents the bombing and its aftermath, including the eventual convictions decades later, from FBI investigative records and Alabama court proceedings.
Sources
- National Park Service. 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963) · Primary source (author-declared)nps.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- National Museum of African American History and Culture. America Sees the Truth · Reputable sourcenmaahc.si.edu · The domain "nmaahc.si.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.
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