Today marks 60 years since September 15, 1963, when 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was targeted in a heinous act of racial violence. On that day, four Black girls, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair, lost their lives in a devastating bombing.
The girls were attending Sunday school in the church’s basement when the bomb exploded. Fourteen others were also injured in the blast.
Originally, no one was arrested for the crime. However, after the investigation was reopened in 2000, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry surrendered, were indicted, and sentenced to life in prison. They both died behind bars.
While no one was arrested for the crime immediately, the investigation was reopened in 2000. Members of the Ku Klux Klan, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry, surrendered, were indicted, and sentenced to life in prison. They both died behind bars.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court, will give the keynote address at the remembrance. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
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