16th Street Baptist Church bombing

==Reactions==
===Unrest and tensions===
{{Further|Shooting of Johnny Robinson}}
Violence escalated in Birmingham in the hours following the bombing, with reports of groups of black and white youth throwing bricks and shouting insults at each other.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Padgett | first1=Tim |last2=Sikora | first2=Frank |date=September 22, 2003 |title=The Legacy of Virgil Ware | url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,485698,00.html |magazine=TIME | access-date=July 19, 2018 }}</ref> Police urged parents of black and white youths to keep their children indoors, as the Governor of Alabama, [[George Wallace]], ordered an additional 300 state police and 500 [[Alabama National Guard]]smen to assist in quelling unrest.<ref>{{cite news |title=Church Bomb Kills 4 Girls in Ala.; 2 Die in Fighting|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33870324/16th-street-baptist-church-bombing-63/ |work=[[Detroit Free Press]] |date=September 16, 1963 |access-date=February 26, 2023 |agency=United Press International }}</ref> The Birmingham City Council convened an emergency meeting to propose safety measures for the city, although proposals for a [[curfew]] were rejected. Within 24 hours of the bombing, a minimum of five businesses and properties had been firebombed and numerous cars—most of which were driven by whites—had been stoned by rioting youths.<ref name="Washington Post Sept. 16, 1963"/>

In response to the church bombing, described by the Mayor of Birmingham, [[Albert Boutwell]], as "just sickening", the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]], [[Robert F. Kennedy]], dispatched 25 FBI agents, including explosives experts, to Birmingham to conduct a thorough [[Forensic science|forensic]] investigation.<ref>{{cite news |title=Six Dead After Church Bombing |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/archives1.htm |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |agency=United Press International|date=September 16, 1963 |access-date=February 26, 2023 }}</ref>
[[File:Congress of Racial Equality and members of the All Souls Church, Unitarian march in memory of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing victims.jpg|thumb|right|[[Congress of Racial Equality]] and members of the [[All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.)|All Souls Church]] march in memory of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing victims on September 22, 1963]]

Although reports of the bombing and the loss of four children's lives were glorified by white supremacists, who in many instances chose to celebrate the loss as "four less [[nigger]]s",<ref name=freeatlast>{{cite book |title=Free at Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle |date=May 20, 1993 |first=Sara |last=Bullard |url=https://archive.org/details/freeatlasthistor0000bull |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0195083811 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/freeatlasthistor0000bull/page/63 63]–64 }}</ref> as news of the church bombing and the fact that four young girls had been killed in the explosion reached the national and international [[news media|press]], many felt that they had not taken the civil rights struggle seriously enough. The day following the bombing, a young white lawyer named [[Charles Morgan Jr.]] addressed a meeting of businessmen, condemning the acquiescence of white people in Birmingham toward the oppression of blacks. In this speech, Morgan lamented: "Who did it [the bombing]? We all did it! The 'who' is every little individual who talks about the 'niggers' and spreads the seeds of his hate to his neighbor and his son ... What's it like living in Birmingham? No one ever really has known and no one will until this city becomes part of the United States."<ref name=cohen>{{cite news |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/the-speech-that-shocked-birmingham-the-day-after-the-church-bombing/279565/ |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=September 13, 2013 |title=The Speech That Shocked Birmingham the Day After the Church Bombing |first=Andrew |last=Cohen |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref> A ''[[Milwaukee Sentinel]]'' editorial opined, "For the rest of the nation, the Birmingham church bombing should serve to goad the conscience. The deaths&nbsp;... in a sense, are on the hands of each of us."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=McKissack|first=Frederick|url=https://progressive.org/op-eds/50-years-birmingham-bombing-we/ |title=Fifty Years After Birmingham Bombing, Where are We? |magazine=[[The Progressive]] |date=September 15, 2013 |access-date=August 10, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title= Our American Story: America Sees the Truth |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/america-sees-truth|work=National Museum of African American History and Culture|access-date=August 10, 2023}}</ref>

Two more black youths, [[Shooting of Johnny Robinson|Johnny Robinson]] and [[Virgil Lamar Ware|Virgil Ware]], were shot to death in Birmingham within seven hours of the Sunday morning bombing. Robinson, aged 16, was shot in the back by Birmingham police officer Jack Parker as he fled down an alley, after ignoring police orders to halt.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mangun |first=Kimberley |date=January 2, 2014 |title=Driving the Discussion from Relevance to Resonance: How Historians Can Inspire Passion for Place and People |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08821127.2014.881234 |journal=American Journalism |language=en |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=150–160 |doi=10.1080/08821127.2014.881234 |s2cid=155045692 |issn=0882-1127}}</ref> The police were reportedly responding to black youths throwing rocks at cars driven by white people. Robinson died before reaching the hospital. Ware, aged 13, was shot in the cheek and chest with a revolver<ref name="William O. Bryant" /> in a residential suburb {{convert|15|mi|km}} north of the city. A 16-year-old white youth named Larry Sims fired the gun (given to him by another youth named Michael Farley) at Ware, who was sitting on the handlebars of a bicycle ridden by his brother. Sims and Farley had been riding home from an anti-integration rally which had denounced the church bombing.<ref name="TIME Sep. 22, 2003">{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,485698,00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=September 22, 2003 |title=The Legacy of Virgil Ware |first1=Tim |last1=Padgett |first2=Frank |last2=Sikora |access-date=May 27, 2019}}</ref> When he spotted Ware and his brother, Sims fired twice, reportedly with his eyes closed. (Sims and Farley were later convicted of second-degree manslaughter,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?&id=AmYeAAAAIBAJ&pg=4698,902659 |first=Jay |last=Reeves |work=[[TimesDaily]] |date=May 7, 2004 |access-date=May 27, 2019 |agency=Associated Press |title=Ceremony recalls victim of civil rights violence }}</ref> although the judge [[Suspended sentence|suspended]] their sentences and imposed two years' [[probation]] upon each youth.<ref name="TIME Sep. 22, 2003"/><ref name=informant>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsPxhQil8vwC&pg=PA88 |title=The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo |page=88 |isbn=978-0300106350 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |date=May 11, 2005}}</ref>)

Some civil rights activists blamed [[George Wallace]], Governor of Alabama and an outspoken segregationist, for creating the climate that had led to the killings. One week before the bombing, Wallace granted an interview with ''[[The New York Times]]'', in which he said he believed Alabama needed a "few first-class funerals" to stop racial integration.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2003/05/04/Columns/Drawn_back_to_Birming.shtml |title=Columns: Drawn back to Birmingham |first=Bill |last=Maxwell |work=[[Tampa Bay Times|St. Petersburg Times]] |date=May 4, 2003 |access-date=May 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030513050541/http://www.sptimes.com/2003/05/04/Columns/Drawn_back_to_Birming.shtml |archive-date=May 13, 2003 }}</ref>

The city of Birmingham initially offered a $52,000 reward for the arrest of the bombers. Governor Wallace offered an additional $5,000 on behalf of the state of Alabama. Although this donation was accepted,<ref name="crimes and trials"/>{{rp|274}} Martin Luther King Jr. is known to have sent Wallace a [[Telegraphy|telegram]] saying, "the blood of four little children ... is on your hands. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder."<ref name="Washington Post Sept. 16, 1963" /><ref>{{cite book |title=1963: The Year of Hope and Hostility |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-0989662000 |date=2013 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/1963yearofhopeho0000will/page/184 184]–185 |url=https://archive.org/details/1963yearofhopeho0000will |url-access=registration |first=Byron |last=Williams |access-date=May 27, 2019 }}</ref>

===Funerals===
Carole Rosamond Robertson was laid to rest in a private family funeral held on September 17, 1963.<ref name="Park City Daily News Sept. 19, 1963">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jRsfAAAAIBAJ&pg=4194,1375176 |title=Three Bomb Victims Are Buried |work=[[The Daily News (Kentucky)|Park City Daily News]] |agency=Associated Press |date=September 19, 1963 |access-date=May 27, 2019 }}</ref> Reportedly, Carole's mother, Alpha, had expressly requested that her daughter be buried separately from the other victims. She was distressed about a remark made by Martin Luther King, who had said that the mindset that enabled the murder of the four girls was the "[[apathy]] and [[Contentment|complacency]]" of black people in Alabama.<ref name="crimes and trials">{{cite book |isbn=978-0313341090 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNex7XqLuiIC&pg=PA272 |first1=Steven |last1=Chermak |first2=Frankie Y. |last2=Bailey |title=Crimes and Trials of the Century |access-date=May 27, 2019 |date=2007 | publisher=ABC-CLIO }}</ref>{{rp|272}}

The service for Carole Rosamond Robertson was held at St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church. In attendance were 1,600 people. At this service, the Reverend C. E. Thomas told the congregation: "The greatest tribute you can pay to Carole is to be calm, be lovely, be kind, be innocent."<ref>{{cite news |title=Hundreds Mourn At Rites |agency=Associated Press |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=X7wqAAAAIBAJ&pg=3807,3815099 |work=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] |date=September 18, 1963 |access-date=May 27, 2019 }}</ref> Carole Robertson was buried in a blue casket at Shadow Lawn Cemetery.<ref>{{cite news |title=First of 4 Birmingham Bomb Victims is Buried |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sGY8AAAAIBAJ&pg=686,1625362 |work=[[Baltimore Afro-American]] |date=September 21, 1963 |access-date=May 27, 2019 |first=James D. |last=Williams }}</ref>
[[File:Funeral program for church bombings.jpg|180px|right|thumb|Funeral program for Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carol Denise McNair]]

On September 18, the funeral of the three other girls killed in the bombing was held at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. Although no city officials attended this service,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ |title=We Shall Overcome Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement |website=nps.gov |publisher=[[National Public Radio]] |access-date=November 19, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525184307/https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ |archive-date=May 25, 2019 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> an estimated 800 clergymen of all races were among the attendees. Also present was Martin Luther King Jr. In a speech conducted before the burials of the girls, King addressed an estimated 3,300<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XcZaAAAAIBAJ&pg=4313,3210110 |title=Over 3,000 Attend Bomb Victims' Rites |work=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]] |date=September 19, 1963 |access-date=May 27, 2019 |agency=Associated Press }}</ref> mourners—including numerous white people—with a speech saying: 
{{Quote|This tragic day may cause the white side to come to terms with its conscience. In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not become bitter ... We must not lose faith in our white brothers. Life is hard. At times as hard as [[crucible steel]], but, today, you do not walk alone.<ref name="not in vain">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yswpAAAAIBAJ&pg=6166,4124115 |work=Ocala [[Star-Banner]] |title=Funeral Speakers Say Deaths Of Three Children Not In Vain |date=September 19, 1963 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=May 27, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rev-martin-luther-kings-e_b_3930450 |title=Martin Luther King's 'Eulogy for the Martyred Children' |first=Peter |last=Dreier |date=September 15, 2013 |work=[[Huffington Post]] |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref>}}

As the girls' coffins were taken to their graves, King directed that those present remain solemn and forbade any singing, shouting or demonstrations. These instructions were relayed to the crowd present by a single youth with a bullhorn.<ref name="not in vain"/>