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The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism〔("16th Street Baptist Church bombing", from ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' )〕〔("Fifty Years After Bombing, Birmingham is Resurrected", by John Meacham, ''Time''. September 23, 2013 )〕 which occurred at the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday, September 15, 1963, when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the front steps of the church.〔(Know 1 Radio.com )〕 Described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity",〔(N.Y. Daily News Sept. 1, 2013 )〕 the explosion at the church killed four girls and injured 22 others. Although the FBI had concluded in 1965 that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had been committed by four known Ku Klux Klansmen and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr.; Herman Frank Cash; Robert Edward Chambliss; and Bobby Frank Cherry,〔(wsws.org May 20, 2000 )〕 no prosecutions ensued until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried and convicted of the first degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair. Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were each convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 and 2002 respectively,〔(Times Daily May 23, 2002 )〕 whereas Herman Cash, who died in 1994, was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing marked a turning point in the United States 1960s Civil Rights Movement and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ==Background== In the years leading to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham had earned a national reputation as a tense, violent and racially segregated city, in which public facilities were segregated, and even tentative racial integration of any form was met with violent resistance. Dr. Martin Luther King described Birmingham as "probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States".〔(TeachingAmericanHistory.org )〕 The city had no black police officers or firefighters, and few of the city's black residents were registered to vote. Bombings at black institutions were a regular occurrence:〔〕 Birmingham had seen at minimum of 21 separate explosions at black properties and churches in the eight years before 1963, although none of these explosions had resulted in fatalities.〔(Washington Post Sept. 16, 1963 )〕 These attacks had earned the city the nickname "Bombingham".〔()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「16th Street Baptist Church bombing」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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