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A former Klansman named Mitchell Burns also provided the FBI with recordings of Blanton boasting about the attack. In a tape made by an FBI informant in April 1964, Blanton can twice be heard to mention the phrase "plan a bomb". The ensuing investigation into the bombing easily found the identities of the three attackers, along with a fourth suspect named Herman Cash. Shortly afterwards the explosives went off and killed four young girls who were in the basement. Later that day, one of them phoned the church and told them "three minutes". On September 16, 1963, Blanton and his fellow conspirators planted 15 sticks of dynamite under the steps of Birmingham's majority-black 16th Street Baptist church. was listed as a member of the notorious hate group (which was then a terrorist group), the United Klans of America. Both father and son lived in the Alabama city of Birmingham and were notorious racists in the area. He died in Alabama while serving four life sentences for his role in the attack. (J– June 26, 2020) was an American domestic terrorist and Ku Klux Klan member who carried out the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing alongside Robert Edward Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry. The bodies of Denise McNair, 11, and Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, all 14, were found in the downstairs lounge.Ĭollins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph, survived the blast but lost her right eye and is known as the “fifth little girl.” Glass fragments remained in her chest, left eye and abdomen for decades after the explosion.Kill as many Black people as possible (succeeded)Įnsure that segregation never ended (failed) 15, 1963, a bomb ripped through an exterior wall of the brick church, killing four girls who were inside preparing for a youth program. Cherry was convicted in 2002 and died in prison in 2004. Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and died in prison in 1985. The investigation into the bombing was stalled early and left dormant for long stretches, but two other ex-Klansmen, Robert Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry, also were convicted in the bombing in separate trials.
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Moderates could no longer remain silent and the fight to topple segregation laws gained new momentum. The church bombing, exposing the depths of hatred by white supremacists as Birmingham integrated its public schools, was a tipping point of the civil rights movement. “That he died at this moment, when the country is trying to reconcile the multi-generational failure to end systemic racism, seems fitting,” Jones said in a statement.
#THOMAS EDWIN BLANTON JR FREE#
Doug Jones, who prosecuted Blanton, said the fact that Blanton remained free for almost 40 years after the bombing “speaks to a broader systemic failure to hold him and his accomplices accountable.” When asked by the judge during sentencing if he had any comment, Blanton said: “I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.” Ivey, in a statement, called the bombing “a dark day that will never be forgotten in both Alabama’s history and that of our nation.” In May 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
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He was being held at Donaldson prison near Birmingham, prison officials said. Kay Ivey’s office said Blanton died of natural causes. (AP) - Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.īIRMINGHAM, Ala. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.