Birmingham Bombing Research Paper

When All Of Birmingham Went Silent

It was a peaceful day in Birmingham, Alabama when the unthinkable happened. When people heard the blast, all of Birmingham went silent wondering “What was that noise?” The 16th street Baptist church had been bombed on September 15, 1963 at 10:22 am, shortly before Sunday services. This was the third bombing in 11 days. About 200 members were in the church at the time, but luckily only 23 were injured and 4 were killed.

Four unlucky girls were killed in the blast. 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and 11-year-old Denise McNair. The girls were in the ladies restroom in the basement talking about their first days of the school year when the blast killed them. 10-year-old Sarah Collins was in the basement restroom with the other girls when the bomb went off, but she only lost her right eye. After the bombing, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out to 8,000 people at three of the little girls funerals, while the other girl’s family held a smaller private service.

Later the perpetrators were brought to

Some people believe that this is the reason for the bombing. Other people believe that the reason was to scare the people and stop the Civil Rights movement. Instead what happened was the exact opposite of what the Ku Klux Klan had hoped. They ended up fueling the Civil Rights Movement.

The bombing was the trigger to many events in the Civil Rights movement. In the aftermath, thousands of black protesters gathered at the scene of the bombing. When the police went to break up the protests, violence broke out across the city. Many people were arrested and two young African American men died before the National Guard was called in and restored order. Also, the bombing impacted the support to end segregation greatly and adding more support from many angry people because of the four innocent little girl’s