Alabama board considers parole of Birmingham church bomber

The Klan hoped the attacks would derail the movement – the marches had wrung concessions from local leaders and the state had begun integrating schools days before the bombing – but historians contend the church bombing marked a turning point in the civil rights movement and contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

September 15, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing.

Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14; from left, are shown in these 1963 photos.

The last living person convicted for playing a role in the fatal 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing that killed four young Black girls was denied parole Wednesday in his first attempt to win parole.

Riots break out, and two African-American boys, Virgil Ware, 13, and Johnny Robinson, 16, are also killed.

Along with those who died, McNair spoke about a woman who lost an eye during the bombing and others who were scarred by glass and debris.

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. Witnesses are reluctant to talk and physical evidence is lacking, so charges are not filed.

It wasn’t until 1977 that Chambliss – nicknamed “Dynamite Bob” – was convicted. McNair was born a year after her sister’s death but says the bombing has profoundly impacted her, her family and her community. Both men died while serving their prison sentences. Cash, who died in 1994, was never charged in the case.

Blanton and Cherry were indicted in 2000 after the FBI reopened an investigation of the bombing. They’re strong and proud, and wonderful people, who waited patiently for 30-some-odd years for justice to be served, and justice was finally served in 2001 in the case of Thomas Blanton.

May 22, 2002 – Bobby Frank Cherry is found guilty and given a sentence of four life terms.

February 20, 2006 – The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is declared a national historic landmark. In 2013, the girls were posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. It is located at Kelly Ingram Park, on the corner of Sixteenth Street North and Sixth Avenue North.

Following the denial of Blanton’s parole, Chairman Cliff Walker expressed his condolences to the family members of the victims who were in attendance.

Church bombing survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph speaks with the media on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016, in Montgomery, Ala., after Alabama’s parole board refused early release for a one-time KKK member convicted in the blast.