THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 15th September 1963

The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, the United States (US) was bombed killing four girls - Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14). Over twenty people were injured.

Four members of the Ku Klux Klan, Robert Chambliss, Thomas E. Blanton Jr, Herman Cash, and Bobby Frank Cherry, were identified as suspects in the bombing but because of a "lack of evidence" none of the suspects were charged with the murders of the four girls following the bombing. Chambliss and a couple of other klansman were convicted in October 1963 for the lesser charge of dynamite possession. The convictions were overturned on appeal.

The case was re-opened in 1976 when it was discovered that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had withheld a significant amount of evidence. Chambliss was tried for murder in November 1997 and convicted, aged 73. He died in an Alabama prison on 29th October 1985.

Blanton was tried in 2001 and found guilty of four counts of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison aged 62. Cherry was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2002 after delaying his trial (scheduled to take place at the same time as Blantons) on health grounds. He died in prison in 2004. Cash died in 1994 and was never charged.

In 1997 Spike Lee made his first documentary "4 Little Girls" in honour of Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. Here's a link to the documentary which I am re-posting for educational purposes, and to encourage us all to continue in the pursuit of freedom, fairness and justice for ordinary people:

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