Sept 15, 1963, is the day American terrorism was felt in Birmingham, Alabama.
Warning- This is not a feel good story. The story depicted is the damage the Terrorist inflicted upon the innocent young girls as Birmingham political leaders filled with hate and vitriol assisted. Some of the photos in this post may cause distress.
Viewer Discretion Is Advised
More then 60 years ago, on September 15, 1963 at 10:22 a.m. Members of the American Terrorist Group the Ku Klux Klan planted a bomb that exploded in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church and killed 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins and 11 year old Denise McNair. There another 14-22 victims were severely injured.
Facts:
On 9/15/1963 at approximately 10:22 a.m., an anonymous man telephoned the 16th Street Baptist Church. 14 year old Carolyn Maull, the Sunday School Secretary answered the phone. The anonymous caller simply said the words, "Three minutes" to the young girl and then Hung Up.
Less than one minute later, the bomb exploded!
The terrorist planted a minimum of 15 sticks of dynamite with a time delay under the steps of the church, close to the basement. According to one survivor, “the explosion shook the entire building and propelled the girls' bodies through the air "like rag dolls.”
From the archive of the Guardian. 16 September 1963: Black church bombed in Birmingham, Alabama “One witness said he saw about sixty people stream out of the shattered church, some bleeding. Others emerged from a hole in the wall. Across the street a Negro woman stood weeping. She clasped a little girl’s shoe. “Her daughter was killed,” a bystander said. Two of the dead schoolgirls were aged 14 and another aged 11. One of the children was so badly mutilated that she could only be identified by clothing and a ring”
The pastor of the church, the Reverend John Cross, recollected in 2001 that the girls' bodies were found "stacked on top of each other, clung together".
Addie Mae Collins (age 14, born April 18, 1949), Carol Denise McNair (age 11, born November 17, 1951), Carole Rosamond Robertson (age 14, born April 24, 1949), and Cynthia Dionne Wesley (age 14, born April 30, 1949)—all died instantly.
The explosion was so intense that one of the girls' bodies was decapitated and so badly mutilated that her body could be identified only through her clothing and a ring. Another victim was killed by a piece of mortar embedded in her skull.
These bombers were the Hamas, ISIS and Al-Qaeda of the 1960s, American Style. The southern racist invented the art of terrorism. They profected fear and brutality. They mastered the bombing and blowing up babies beging in Bombingham, Alabama.
“Bombingham is a nickname for Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement due to the 50 dynamite explosions that occurred in the city between 1947 and 1965.”
There was a 5th girl. See what 15 sticks of dynamite from the terrorist did to her.
Sarah Collins, age 12 was Addie Mae Collins younger sister, She had 21 pieces of glass embedded in her face and was blinded in one eye. The explosion was so powerful it blew a passing motorist out of his car.
The terror didn’t stop that Sunday morning. As with all things. Hate breeds hate.
Bombings at black homes and institutions were a regular occurrence in Birmingham with at least 21 separate explosions recorded at black properties and churches in the eight years before 1963. However, none of these explosions had resulted in fatalities.
Why bomb 16th street? The city of Birmingham had no black police officers or firefighters. Few black citizens were registered to vote. 16th Street Baptist Church was a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963. The church was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth, for organizing and educating marchers.
On Thursday, May 2, more than 1,000 students, some reportedly as young as eight, opted to leave school and gather at the 16th Street Baptist Church. 600 arrests were made on the first day alone, the Birmingham campaign and its Children's Crusade continued until May 5.
As the demonstrators left the church, police warned them to stop and turn back, "or you'll get wet". When they continued, Bull Connor ordered the city's fire hoses, set at a level that would peel bark off a tree or separate bricks from mortar, to be turned on the children. - Birmingham News, 1963
Boys' shirts were ripped off, and girls were pushed over the tops of cars by the force of the water. When the students crouched or fell, the blasts of water rolled them down the asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks.
Connor allowed white spectators to push forward, shouting, "Let those people come forward, sergeant. I want 'em to see the dogs work."
By May 6, the jails were so full that Connor transformed the stockade at the state fairgrounds into a makeshift jail to hold protesters.
Celebrities
Well-known national figures arrived to show support.
Singer Joan Baez arrived to perform for free at Miles College and stayed at the black-owned and integrated Gaston Motel.
Comedian Dick Gregory and Barbara Deming, a writer for The Nation, were both arrested.
The car of Fannie Flagg, a local television personality and recent Miss Alabama finalist, was surrounded by teenagers who recognized her. Flagg worked at Channel 6 on the morning show, and after asking her producers why the show was not covering the demonstrations, she received orders never to mention them on air. She rolled down the window and shouted to the children, "I'm with you all the way!
The Clergy
Twenty rabbis flew to Birmingham to support the cause, equating silence about segregation to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Local rabbis disagreed and asked them to go home.
Black protestors arrived at white churches to integrate services. They were accepted in Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and Presbyterian churches, but turned away at others such as SOUTHERN BAPTIST EVANGELICAL Christian- Today Christian White Nationalist.
International
The Soviet Union devoted up to 25 percent of its news broadcast to the demonstrations, sending much of it to Africa, where Soviet and U.S. interests clashed.
Why was it this way?
Hate. Which is why Republicans still today attempting to oppress the minorities in Alabama fear of loss of power and ignorance of everything else. Four young girls did not have to die. Children did not have to be hosed and have dogs sic on them. The American terrorist will destroy his family, his community and his country because of hate. Hate will allow a party to celebrate the death of one by the hands of another. Lie and gaslight infrastructure tragedies like the collasping of a Bridge or the crashing of a Train.
When we allow the hatemongering and continued spitting of sexism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, anti semantic, race baiting intersect with everything we do. The American Al-Quaeda can come to your town too.
We must call them out and speak up. Silence is complicity.
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