Birmingham, Alabama1963

“We Shall Overcome…”

Birmingham, Alabama• The most segregated city in America in 1963.• The city had dozens of unsolved bombings and

police killings. The town’s nickname was “Bombingham.”

• Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested and put in a Birmingham jail for demonstrating against the government.

Children Protest• James Bevel organized thousands of black

school children to march in Birmingham.• Police used school buses to arrest hundreds

of children who marched in the streets.

Newspaper Publicity

They ran out of jail space, so “Bull” Connorused dogs and fire hoses to break up thecrowd.

President Kennedy• On May 10, President Kennedy convinced

the white business owners in Birmingham to stop segregation.

• President Kennedy called it “A spectacle which is seriously damaging the reputation of both Birmingham and the country."

May 11, 1963• Bombs explode at the homes of Martin

Luther King, Jr. and his brother.• Riots destroy nine blocks of

Birmingham. • State troopers throw rocks and bottles

at black citizens in the streets.

Riots Spread Across the Nation• For ten weeks, there were 758 protests in 186 cities.• 14,733 people were arrested. • Medgar Evers launched demonstrations in Jackson,

Mississippi.• On June 11, President Kennedy made a televised

speech to support civil rights.• Later that night, a member of the White Citizen’s

Council assassinated Medgar Evers.

“I Have A Dream”• August 28, 1963• 200,000 march to Washington D.C. • At the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King,

Jr. gives his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Gov. George WallaceIn September, 1963, Gov. Wallace told The New York Times that to stop integration, Alabama needed a “few first class funerals.”

16th Street Baptist Church• Meeting place for the Civil Right’s leaders

like Martin Luther King, Jr. • They began a campaign to register blacks

to vote.

September 15, 1963• A white man gets out of his car and

places a box under the stairs of the church.

• A 10:22 a bomb explodes.

Four Girls are Killed• It kills four girls: Denise McNair (11),

Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14).

• Twenty-three other people were also hurt by the blast.

Robert Chambliss 1963• A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member

of the Ku Klux Klan, as the man who placed the bomb under the steps.

• He was charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit.

• On October 8, 1963, he was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for having the dynamite.

Robert Chambliss 1977• The case was unsolved until Bill Baxley was elected

attorney general of Alabama. He requested the original FBI files on the case and discovered a lot of evidence that had not been used in the first trial.

• In November, 1977, Robert Chambliss was tried for murder. At age 73, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

• He died in an Alabama prison on October 29, 1985.

Accomplices • On May 17, 2000, the FBI announced the bombing had

been carried out by the Ku Klux Klan group, “The Cahaba Boys.” The FBI claimed Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry had been responsible for the crime.

• Cash was dead, but Blanton and Cherry were arrested.• Blanton was convicted.

The Summer of 1963