16th Street Church Bombing
Citation: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/birmingham-church-bombing
16th street Church
Bombing, History.com
The 16th street
Baptist church was a place for many civil rights protest marches and meetings. The
KKK members had routinely called in bomb threats to disrupt the civil rights
meetings that took place at the church. At 10:22 AM on the morning of September
15th, 1963, some 200 church members were in the building and the
children were attending Sunday school. The bomb set off on the church’s east
side, spraying mortar and brick from the front of the church, and Most people could
escape the church as it filled with smoke but four young girls sadly died.
Their names are 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson
and 11-year-old Denise McNair they were found beneath dust in the basement
restroom. Ten-year-old Sarah Collins who was in the restroom lost her right eye
and more than 20 people were blasted.