Essay On The Birmingham Bombing

Words: 414
Pages: 2

The Birmingham bombing was important because the act of the white supremacist terrorism (KKK) occurred at the historic African American 16th Street Baptist Church. Three weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream.” speech; a bomb exploded at an Alamaba church killing four girls and injuring others.
The KKK made several threats to the church before the bombing. On September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded on Sunday morning at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. On this day, a young girl wanted to go to a civil rights freedom march but, her mother insists the young girl attend church. However, the girl and three other girls died.
Four white supremacists planted a bomb made of 15 sticks of dynamite and placed
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Some supremacists did not want change, and they went to violent lengths to end segregation. The church also held meetings with civil rights leaders.
After the bombing, several white strangers visited the grieving families to express their sorrow. The funerals for the four girls got a lot of attention around the U.S. (McBirney). At the funeral for the three of the girls Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a eulogy about life being “as hard as crucible steel.” (16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963))
The FBI did an investigation of the bombing. The FBI discovered four KKK members that did the bombing. However, the men were not arrested due to lack of evidence. Later in years, the case was reopened, and the men went to jail except for one who died.
The bombing will be an event that is never forgotten. Blacks were fighting for their civil rights, and mothers lost their children. On the day of the terrible events, one of the mothers clawed through bits of glass and brick then lifted out a shoe. She stated, “O, here’s the shoe my baby wore, but baby, where are you?” (Randall) These are the words of a mother who lost her baby over what was supposed to be a day of the church and peace march of freedom but, became a day of