Devastating Bombing in Birmingham

"Pictures of the bravery and determination of the Birmingham children as they faced the brutal firehoses and vicious police dogs were splashed on the front of every newspaper across America." Says Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. Time Magazine had an entire article with pictures covering the event. This exposed the issue to the media and made the people of the nation realize what needed to be done about it. In the article Birmingham Children's Crusade by Kim Gilmore it states, "Later that year, in September 1963, four little girls were killed by a bomb planted by white supremacists at the 16th St Baptists Church... The horrific bombings sent shock waves through the nation." The events following the crusade only pushed the people further and the Civil Rights Movement was back on its

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who spoke of peace. He preached equality. His faith was what drove him. He dreamed of of a world where blacks and whites could live together in harmony. He was the epitome of kindness.This is what we're taught in elementary. This god almighty man of great righteousness. Don’t get me wrong I love and admire King for all that he did for the civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who spoke of peace. He preached equality. His faith was what drove him. He wanted to lead a peaceful revolution. He knew what he had to do given the time period he was in. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an intelligent man. He lived in an era of white dominance. In a sense we still do. This meant he had to be smart. Everything he said would be interpreted as political. That's just the way things went. Especially for such a powerful african man such as himself. On September 15, 1963, the bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church. The church members had been preparing for Sunday mass. This racially charged attack related in the death of four young black girls. Three days later King wrote a eulogy for them. In Eulogy For The Victims of The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses rhetoric persuasion and poetic references to sympathize white people. The speech “Eulogy For The Victims of The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could be read and interpreted differently by white southerners

In 1963, a month after Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech rang harmonies of freedom and equality throughout the United States, Klan members set off dynamite in the sixteenth Baptist Church. The resulting explosion and compromise in the integrity of the building killed four girls. These girls, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNarr were the victims of this atrocity. The events that followed furthered the bloodshed. Thousands of black protestors flooded the streets in protest of the horrific acta that took place in the sixteenth Baptist street church [2]. It was not until 2001 and 2002 when some of the men responsible for the crimes would be prosecuted and eventually convicted. Though the intent of the bombing was to instill fear and panic into the black community, what came about was unity and a call to action.

On April 16, 1963, from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. composed an extensive letter to eight clergymen who condemned the timing of the civil rights movement. Although the letter was addressed to these eight clergymen, the Letter from Birmingham Jail speaks to a national audience, especially King’s “Christian and Jewish brothers”(King, 29). His peaceful but firm letter serves as a remarkably persuasive voice to an immensely chaotic mess, and is seen as a major turning point in the civil rights movement. King believes that without direct action, the full rights for African Americans could never be achieved. He defends the impatience of people in the civil rights movement, upholding that without forceful

Birmingham, Alabama during the 1960’s was experiencing a time of high racial tension and injustice for African Americans. Blacks were only allowed to sit in specific areas in buses and restaurants, and they had separate water fountains, churches, schools, and other public gathering areas. In 1963, the African American demonstrators began “sitting in” at lunch counters that had not served blacks before and picketed stores that did not allow blacks to shop in them. Soon after, African Americans began getting arrested for trespassing. The civil rights leaders applied for permits to picket and parade but were denied, and this sparked the thought that the law prohibiting African Americans to picket and parade was unjust and they decided to disobey it. This led to certain opinions about the Civil Rights Movement to arise and become public. Eight Alabama white clergymen, who represented various churches, wrote “A Call for Unity: A Letter from Eight White Clergymen” in response to the protests that had broken out across Birmingham (“Unity”). Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail in 1963 because he and others were protesting the treatment of African Americans. He went on to write “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” as he waited, hunched over, in his jail cell (“Birmingham”). Both the clergymen and Dr. King used the art of argument to try to persuade people to believe their views on the issue.

Throughout the long fourteen year span of the Civil Rights Movement, countless monumental and historical events took place, but one stood out among the rest. That event was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and with that the death of four innocent African American girls. The bomb had the most impact to the segregation status quo and the overall success of the Civil Rights Act.

Alabama was often the epicenter of civil rights activism and steadfast perseverance for African Americans during the 1960s. It is where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led his congregation and where four little girls were murdered and 22 citizens were injured when the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed. It is also where Dr. King and other activists planned the march on Washington, where he and others leaders like John Lewis were met with violence but ultimately claimed victory in the Selma to Montgomery March of 1965. And who could forget the powerful images of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963, where young, non-violent protesters were met with high-power water hoses, beaten with batons and threatened by police

In the New York Times article, “Birmingham Bomb Kills Four Negro Girls in Church; Riots Flare; Two Boys Slain”, reporter Claude Sitton gives plenty of details about what occurred the Sunday morning of September 15th. The beginning of the article states that the bombing of the all Negro church killed four black girls (Cynthia Weasley, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Carol Robertson, 14, Addie Mae Collins, 14) and injured fourteen Negroes. Claude also explains that during the hours following the bombing and explosion, others were hurt and killed. The hours after the bombing were chaotic and Birmingham was in complete mayhem. Among the killings were two young black boys shot, sixteen year old Johnny Robinson and fourteen year old Virgil Wade. Among the

On April 19th, 1995 a homemade bomb made of a concoction of agricultural fertilizer, fuel, and other dangerous chemicals was left in a truck parked outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. At 9:02 in the morning, it’s blast damaged over 300 buildings surrounding the vehicle and even flattened a third of the federal building. (Strom, 2015) The bomb took the lives of 168 people, including 19 children. It was found that two men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Lynn Nichols were the ones who planted the device. Both men were found to be associated with a radical militia movement that sought revenge for a siege in Waco, Texas two years prior. The siege killed 82 Branch Davidians, of whom, multiple were related to the militia movement.

The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing on September 15, 1963 has been one of the most historic bombing in the African American community. Since then, the Spike Lee’s Four Little Girls film and the poem, Ballad of Birmingham, have been created to commemorate the event and the loss of the four beautiful young girls. Both have received awards for their outstanding and thoughtful works that both artist put into their projects. The movie, Four Little Girls, was a very stimulating movie because it was not your typical scripted play. It was a documentary of all the family, friends, and community that were affected by this event. On the other hand, the poem, Ballad of Birmingham, was very eye opening because it put a new perspective of the church bombing.

A girl by the name of Linda Brown. Just as any school girl, loved being with her friends, and she loved her family. However, Linda’s black skin color restricted her from attending a school that was a few yards away, and forced her to walk miles to the nearest all black school. In outrage, the family fought for their daughter to attend a local white school. Why would she not be allowed to attend a school so close to home? The question became strong enough to begin a movement that would impact the nation.

In 1963, four children were killed in the bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Martin Luther King and Eugene Patterson both delivered eulogies after the deaths of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Diane Wesley, and Carole Robertson. The death of these children were not in vain. They aided Congress to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Both eulogies have sentiments of hope and responsibility and use repetition.

The civil rights movement was a success was because of its religious leaders and how they inspired people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was most influential on the non-violent approach. Dr. King enforced that violence was not going to get anything solved. Anne did not agree with Dr. King on the nonviolent approach because she did not see anything positive coming from it in a timely manner. Little did she know, Dr. King’s nonviolence resistance would be what got noticed? Anne Moody was brought up in the church, and was very active while she was there. Anne lost her faith, after the bombing of the church, which killed four innocent girls. In the book Anne talked about how the older people focused on heaven, while people her age just tried to better themselves. Religious beliefs played an important role in African Americans lives. Although African Americans were going through so many negative things, they never doubted their God. To African Americans church was a place where they were considered “free” despite what society thought. They saw that their skin color did not matter, but that they were all equal in God’s eyes. A few of the religious leaders who helped with the movement were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, and Jesse Jackson. “Religion is the crucial ingredient that kept the movement alive in the face of death, poverty and large scale

These are the men that were responsible for bombing The 16th street Baptist church in 1963. They finally got arrested in 2002.

I found Martin Luther King’s, “Eulogy for the Martyred Children,” to be his most powerful, moving and thought-provoking speech that I have listened to yet. On September 15, 1963 four girls were killed at the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama. Martin Luther King’s speech was delivered at the memorial service for three of those girls Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Diane Wesley and Carol Denise McNair.