Here's a look at the Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing that killed four African-American girls during church services in 1963.
September 15, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing.
Facts:
September 15, 1963 - A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four African-American girls during church services. At least 14 others are injured in the explosion, including Sarah Collins, the 12-year-old sister of Addie Mae Collins, who loses an eye.
September 15, 1963 - A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four African-American girls during church services. At least 14 others are injured in the explosion, including Sarah Collins, the 12-year-old sister of Addie Mae Collins, who loses an eye.
Three former Ku Klux Klan members are eventually convicted of murder for the bombing.
Victims:
Addie Mae Collins, 14
Denise McNair, 11
Carole Robertson, 14
Cynthia Wesley, 14
Addie Mae Collins, 14
Denise McNair, 11
Carole Robertson, 14
Cynthia Wesley, 14
Timeline:
September 15, 1963 - Four girls are killed and 14 injured in a bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
Riots break out, and two African-American boys, Virgil Ware, 13, and Johnny Robinson, 16, are also killed. In all, at least 20 people are injured from the initial bombing and the ensuing riots.
Alabama Governor George Wallace sends 500 National Guardsmen and 300 state troopers to the city. The next day, they are joined by 500 police officers and 150 sheriffs' deputies.
September 15, 1963 - Four girls are killed and 14 injured in a bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
Riots break out, and two African-American boys, Virgil Ware, 13, and Johnny Robinson, 16, are also killed. In all, at least 20 people are injured from the initial bombing and the ensuing riots.
Alabama Governor George Wallace sends 500 National Guardsmen and 300 state troopers to the city. The next day, they are joined by 500 police officers and 150 sheriffs' deputies.
September 16, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy responds by saying, "If these cruel and tragic events can only awaken that city and state - if they can only awaken this entire nation to a realization of the folly of racial injustice and hatred and violence, then it is not too late for all concerned to unite in steps toward peaceful progress before more lives are lost."
September 16, 1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holds a press conference in Birmingham, saying that the U.S. Army "ought to come to Birmingham and take over this city and run it."
1965 - Suspects emerge: Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss, and Herman Frank Cash, all Ku Klux Klan members. Witnesses are reluctant to talk and physical evidence is lacking, so charges are not filed.
1976 - Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopens the case.
September 26, 1977 - Robert Chambliss, 73, a retired auto mechanic and former Ku Klux Klan member, is indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder.
November 15, 1977 - On the second day of the trial, Chambliss's niece, Elizabeth Cobb, testifies that before the bombing, Chambliss confided to her that he had "enough stuff put away to flatten half of Birmingham."
November 18, 1977 - Robert Chambliss is convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1985 - Chambliss dies in prison.
1994 - Herman Frank Cash dies without being charged in the bombing.
July 1997 - The case is reopened by the FBI, citing new evidence.
May 16, 2000 - A grand jury in Alabama indicts former Klansmen Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton with eight counts each of first-degree murder - four counts of intentional murder and four of murder with universal malice.
May 1, 2001 - Thomas Blanton is found guilty of first-degree murder and is sentenced to four life terms.
November 8, 2004 - Cherry dies in prison.
February 20, 2006 - The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is declared a national historic landmark.
September 12, 2013 - 50 years after the bombing, all four girls who died are awarded Congressional Gold Medals.
September 14, 2013 - A bronze and steel statue of the four girls is unveiled. It is located at Kelly Ingram Park, on the corner of Sixteenth Street North and Sixth Avenue North.
August 3, 2016 - Thomas Blanton, the last living convicted bomber, is denied parole. Blanton, 86, had asked the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles to let him die as a free man. He won't be eligible for parole again until 2021.
Alabama's gotten me so upset (bombing Church)
Tennessee made me lose my rest (school desegregation)
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam (Medgar Evers)
Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer (MLK letter from Birmingham J)
Somebody say a prayer
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
This is a show tune (America must write a show to right the wrongs)
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet
Hound dogs on my trail (used to chase slaves)
School children sitting in jail (children's crusade Birmingham)
Black cat cross my path (black cat = black man; danger)
I think every day's gonna be my last (bombing)
Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here (no place for African Americans)
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer
Don't tell me
I tell you ( I know what is right)
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"do it slow" (equality is too slow)
Tennessee made me lose my rest (school desegregation)
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam (Medgar Evers)
Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer (MLK letter from Birmingham J)
Somebody say a prayer
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
This is a show tune (America must write a show to right the wrongs)
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet
Hound dogs on my trail (used to chase slaves)
School children sitting in jail (children's crusade Birmingham)
Black cat cross my path (black cat = black man; danger)
I think every day's gonna be my last (bombing)
Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here (no place for African Americans)
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer
Don't tell me
I tell you ( I know what is right)
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"do it slow" (equality is too slow)
Washing the windows (menial jobs)
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know
Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
I made you thought I was kidding didn't we (crowd realizes Simone's claim)
Picket lines
School boycotts (types of protests)
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie
Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know
You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know
Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
I made you thought I was kidding didn't we (crowd realizes Simone's claim)
Picket lines
School boycotts (types of protests)
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie
Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know
You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
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