|
 |
Born Nov. 17, 1951, Carol
Denise McNair was the first child of photo
shop owner Chris and schoolteacher Maxine McNair. Her
playmates called her Niecie. She was an inquisitive girl
who never understood why she couldn't get a sandwich at
the same counter as white children. A pupil at Center
Street Elementary School, she had a knack of gathering
neighborhood children to play on the block. She held tea
parties, belonged to the Brownies and played baseball.
Denise, who dreamed of being a pediatrician, asked the
neighborhood children to put on skits and dance routines
and to read poetry in a big production to raise money
for muscular dystrophy. It became an annual event. |
| People gathered in the yard to watch
the show in Denise's carport — the main stage. Children
donated their pennies, dimes and nickels. Adults gave
larger sums. The muscular dystrophy fund-raiser was always
Denise's project — one that nobody refused. |
| Born April 30, 1949, Cynthia Wesley was
the first adopted daughter of Claude and Gertrude Wesley
(both teachers). Cynthia was a petite girl with a narrow
face and size 2 dress. Cynthia's mother made her clothes,
which fit her thin frame perfectly., whose parents were
also teachers, left the house that day having been
admonished by her mother to adjust her slip to be
presentable in church. Cynthia attended the now-defunct
Ullman High School, where she did well in math, reading
and the band. She invited friends to parties in her back
yard, playing soulful tunes and serving
refreshments. |
 |
| When Cynthia died in the church blast, she
was still wearing the ring Mrs. Savage gave her when they
were younger. Cynthia's father identified her by that ring
when he went to the morgue |
 |
Born April 24, 1949, Carole Robertson was
the third child of Alpha and Alvin Robertson. Older
siblings were Dianne and Alvin. her father was a band
master at an elementary school and whose mother was a
librarian, was an avid reader, dancer and clarinet player.
Carole was an avid reader and straight-A student who
belonged to Jack and Jill of America, the Girl Scouts, the
Parker High School marching band and science club. She
also had attended Wilkerson Elementary School, where she
sang in the choir. Carole grew up in a Smithfield home
that was full of love, friends and the aroma of good
cooking, especially her mother's spaghetti. |
| In 1976, Chicago residents established the
Carole Robertson Center for Learning, a social service
agency that serves children and their families. Named
after Carole, it is dedicated to the memory of all four
girls. |
| Addie Mae Collins, born April 18, 1949, was one of seven
children born to Oscar Collins, a janitor, and Alice, a
homemaker. Addie's family was the poorest of the four.
"It was clear that she lacked things," recalls
Rev. John Cross, the pastor of the church at the time of
the bombing. "But she was a quiet, sweet girl."
And, Sarah adds, a budding artist: "She could draw
people real good." When disagreements erupted among
the siblings inside the home on Sixth Court West, Addie
was the peacemaker. The Hill Elementary School
eighth-grader loved to pitch while playing ball, too.
"I remember that underhand," said older sister
Janie, now Janie Gaines. |
 |
| Every second and third Saturday, children
file into the Addie Mae Collins Youth Center in an
Ishkooda Road church to build positive attitudes, develop
talents and learn to deal with adversity. "Not only
will it be a memorial to her but also we'll be helping
other kids who are dealing with tragedies," said Mrs.
Jones, whose mother is Janie Gaines. |
Summary
of Southern Terror
On September 15, 1963, a savage explosion of 19 sticks of dynamite
stashed under a stairwell ripped through the northeast corner of
the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The
four girls killed in the blast: Addie Mae Collins, 14;. Denise
McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14, also
died, and another 22 adults and children were injured. Meant to
slow the growing civil rights movement in the South, the racist
killings, like the notorious murder of activist Medgar Evers in
Mississippi three months earlier, instead fueled protests that
helped speed passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
From 1947 to 1963, the Birmingham area suffered
41 racially motivated bombings. "The 16th Street
bombing left an indelible image all over the world of what
Birmingham was like," said Wayne Flynt, a historian at Auburn
University. "It established once and for all an international
reputation for Birmingham as a city that was never too busy to
hate." Yet the tragedy of the church bombing pushed blacks
and whites to work harder at integration --- especially white
moderates who had been silently tolerant of measures to quash
attempts by blacks to achieve equality.
The funeral of the four girls marked the first time many whites
in Birmingham had attended a predominantly black gathering. A
strange unity began to develop.
Summary of Justice Done
Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss, a truck driver and
longtime Ku Klux Klan member, was convicted of the murders in
1977. Though the FBI always believed had had accomplices, even
identifying three suspects, the case against them was marred by
conflicting accounts, and Chambliss, who died in prison at age 81
in 1985, refused to the end to cooperate. But new leads that
emerged a year ago have made the FBI cautiously hopeful.
A former Ku Klux Klansman was convicted of murder Tuesday (July
3, 2001) for the 1963 church bombing that killed
four black girls, the deadliest single attack during the civil
rights movement. Thomas Blanton Jr., 62, was sentenced to life in
prison by the same jury that found him guilty after 2˝ hours of
deliberations. The Rev. Abraham Woods, a black minister
instrumental in getting the FBI to reopen the case in 1993, said
he was delighted with the verdict.
*
* * * *
Legal Chronology
Sept. 15, 1963: Dynamite bomb explodes outside
Sunday services at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing
11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Carole
Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, and injuring 20 others.
May 13, 1965: FBI memorandum to director J.
Edgar Hoover concludes the bombing was the work of former Ku Klux
Klansmen Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank
Cash and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr.
1968: FBI closes its investigation without
filing charges.
1971: Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley
reopens investigation.
Nov. 18, 1977: Chambliss convicted on a state
murder charge and sentenced to life in prison.
1980: Justice Department report concludes
Hoover had blocked prosecution of the Klansmen in 1965.
Oct. 29, 1985: Chambliss dies in prison, still
professing his innocence.
1988: Alabama Attorney General Don Siegelman
reopens the case, which is closed without action.
1993: Birmingham-area black leaders meet with
FBI, agents secretly begin new review of case.
Feb. 7, 1994: Cash dies.
July 1997: Cherry interrogated in Texas; FBI
investigation becomes public knowledge.
Oct. 27, 1998: Federal grand jury in Alabama
begins hearing evidence.
April 26, 2000: Cherry arrested on charges he
molested a former stepdaughter 29 years earlier. He is later
extradited to Alabama.
May 17, 2000: Blanton and Cherry surrender on
murder indictments returned by grand jury in Birmingham.
April 10, 2001: Judge delays Cherry trial,
citing defendant's medical problems, but refuses to dismiss
charges against either man.
April 16, 2000: Jury selection to begin in
case against Blanton. * *
* * *
update 3 July 2008 |
