It killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Morris, also known as Cynthia Wesley. 15, 1963, amid white opposition to desegregation of public schools. Prosecutors and members of the girls’ families also are opposing Blanton’s release, and some could speak to the parole board during the hearing scheduled in Montgomery.Ī powerful bomb went off outside the church on Sept. “It is our further position that it would be a travesty of justice,” said Jackson. READ MORE: David Duke, former KKK leader, trying to ride Donald Trump’s coattails in Senate bidīut Hezekiah Jackson, president of the Birmingham chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said freeing Blanton now during nationwide protests over police treatment of black people would send the wrong message. Alabama’s parole board on Wednesday is set to consider Blanton for release. Members of the Birmingham NAACP and other groups held a news conference across the street from the church to protest the possible early release of Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., 78.īlanton is serving a life sentence for being part of a group of Klansmen who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, a gathering spot for demonstrators during the civil rights movement in Birmingham. – The lone surviving Ku Klux Klan member convicted in an Alabama church bombing that killed four black girls in 1963 is up for parole after spending 15 years in prison for murder, but civil rights activists spoke out Friday against any early release. Send this page to someone via email emailīIRMINGHAM, Ala.The bodies of Denise McNair, 11, and Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, all 14, were found in the downstairs lounge.Ĭollins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph, survived the blast but lost her right eye and is known as the “fifth little girl.” Glass fragments remained in her chest, left eye and abdomen for decades after the explosion. 15, 1963, a bomb ripped through an exterior wall of the brick church, killing four girls who were inside preparing for a youth program. Cherry was convicted in 2002 and died in prison in 2004. ![]() ![]() Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and died in prison in 1985. The investigation into the bombing was stalled early and left dormant for long stretches, but two other ex-Klansmen, Robert Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry, also were convicted in the bombing in separate trials. Moderates could no longer remain silent and the fight to topple segregation laws gained new momentum. The church bombing, exposing the depths of hatred by white supremacists as Birmingham integrated its public schools, was a tipping point of the civil rights movement. “That he died at this moment, when the country is trying to reconcile the multi-generational failure to end systemic racism, seems fitting,” Jones said in a statement. Doug Jones, who prosecuted Blanton, said the fact that Blanton remained free for almost 40 years after the bombing “speaks to a broader systemic failure to hold him and his accomplices accountable.” When asked by the judge during sentencing if he had any comment, Blanton said: “I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.” ![]() Ivey, in a statement, called the bombing “a dark day that will never be forgotten in both Alabama’s history and that of our nation.” In May 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. ![]() He was being held at Donaldson prison near Birmingham, prison officials said. Kay Ivey’s office said Blanton died of natural causes. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said.
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