1949-1965
BOMBINGHAM:
Explosive Racism in “The Magic City”
What’s in a name? Perhaps not as much as what was in a nickname.
Birmingham, then Alabama’s largest city, was largely known as Bombingham during the civil rights movement. It was a well-earned moniker, as there were 50 dynamite explosions at churches and residences in the city from 1949 to 1965. Most of those bombings have never been solved.
The bombings initially targeted African Americans attempting to move into neighborhoods that had been composed of entirely white residents. Later, the bombings were used against anyone working toward racial desegregation in the city. One neighborhood within Birmingham experienced so many bombings that it developed its own nickname—Dynamite Hill.
By the 1940s, Black families were trying to purchase homes in segregated white areas of Birmingham. The local Ku Klux Klan began a terror campaign against Black families attempting to move to the west side of Center Street in the city’s Smithfield Community, sometimes firing shots or bombs at houses, or lighting a home’s door on fire. Center Street became known as Dynamite Hill because of those attacks. Some families refused to leave, instead tolerating the attacks in an effort to support desegregation efforts.
The home of the Reverend Milton Curry Jr. at 1100 Center Street North was the target of bombs three times, including twice in 1949, then a third time in 1950. Five homes of Black people were bombed in December 1957 alone. The KKK was credited with – or took credit for – many of the blasts. Black churches were frequently targeted, as were the homes of Black activists seeking civil rights. The home of civil rights attorney Arthur Shores was bombed on August 20, 1963. Sixteen days later, his home was bombed again. Eleven days after the second explosion at the Shores house came the blast heard around the world at a house of worship—the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
By 1965, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had serious suspects—namely, Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., all KKK members—but witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. Also, at that time, information from FBI surveillances was not admissible in court. As a result, no federal charges were filed in the 1960s.
In the end, justice was served. Chambliss received life in prison in 1977 following a case led by Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley. And eventually the fear, prejudice, and reticence that kept witnesses from coming forward began to subside. The case was re-opened in the mid-1990s, and Blanton and Cherry were indicted in May 2000. Both were convicted at trial and sentenced to life in prison. The fourth man, Herman Frank Cash, had died in 1994.
Sources
Federal Bureau of Investigation – Baptist Street Church Bombing
