16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Essay

769 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The ballad of birmingham poem essay

On September 15, 1963 four men bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing and injuring many people. This had a huge impact on the world and what was going on at that time specifically in the United States. So, Richard Farina was inspired to write Birmingham Sunday to remember the horrendous acts that occurred on September 15, 1963. Because of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, Richard Farina wrote “Birmingham Sunday” to reflect the occurrences at the church that day, show the significance of the bombing for the civil rights movement, and to remember the lives of the four girls that died. On a Sunday on September 15, 1963 in Birmingham Alabama four members of the racist group against black equality known as the Ku Klux Klan, (KKK) bombed the 16th Street Baptist church. The four men’s name’s were; Thomas Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Chambliss, and Bobb Cherry. These men planted the bomb which consisted of fifteen sticks of dynamite on the right side of the church under an outdoor stairwell. The church was filled with many African Americans coming, like they did every Sunday, to hear the sermon preached. There were four girls in the restroom located in the basement at the time the bomb went off. The bomb detonated at 10:19 a.m. killing the four girls in the basement and injuring …show more content…

The song has many connections of the events that happened on that day. One of the connections is when Farina writes “On Birmingham Sunday the noise shook the ground and people all over the earth turned around”(Farina). This is pointing directly to the bomb that went off that day and that it was such a significant event that people all over the world heard about it. Another quote that points directly to the event is “On Birmingham Sunday the blood ran like wine” Farina) which points to the fact that four girls died that day and 17 more were

Show More
Related

  • Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Moore’s Ford lynching shows that the Ku Klux Klan was still very powerful in Georgia just after the Second World War. Blacks who lived in these areas which were overwhelmingly rural and contained large plantations owned by white men were regularly browbeaten into submission by the white minority and sporadic outbreaks of violence were not uncommon. There was a wealth of evidence against several white men who were prominent citizens of the county, but no prosecution was ever conducted and the murderers went to their graves without having paid for their crime....

    Read More

  • Stories of Scottsboro by James E. Goodman

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    On March 25, 1931 nine African American youths were falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned for the rape of two white girls. Over the next six consecutive years, trials were held to attempt to prove the innocence of these nine young men. The court battles ranged from the U.S Supreme court to the Scottsboro county court with almost every decision the same---guilty. Finally, with the proceedings draining Alabama financially and politically, four of the boys ...

    Read More

  • Oklahoma City Bombing: Timothy McVeigh

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Oklahoma City Bombing was a domestic terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 19, 1995. It was lead by Timothy McVeigh, an Army veteran of the Persian Gulf War. The explosive was a homemade bomb which was built by McVeigh and the help of Terry Nichols; the bomb consisted of a deadly cocktail and was put inside a rented Ryder truck in front of the Murrah Federal Building . McVeigh then proceeded out of the truck and headed towards his getaway car a few blocks away. He then started the detonation of the timed bomb at exactly 9:02 A.M. then the bomb exploded. To the people of Oklahoma it was a traumatizing moment for all, many lost families, dozens of cars were incinerated and more than 300 buildings were destroyed and caused about $652 million worth of damages. The “OKBOMB” affected hundreds of people; it killed “168 people -- 19 of them children -- and injured more than 500.” (CNN.com) Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was pulled over 80 miles north of Oklahoma City by a state trooper who noticed McVeigh's missing license plate. He was later arrested for having a concealed weapon. From there, a investigation was held and agents found traces of chemicals on McVeigh’s clothing similar to the ones from the bomb. They learned that McVeigh’s plan was due to the anger over the events at Waco Siege two years earlier. The bombing investigation was one of the most exhaustive in FBI history; “the Bureau had conducted more than 28,000 interviews, followed some 43,000 investigative leads, amassed three-and-a-half tons of evidence, and reviewed nearly a billion pieces of information.” (FBI.com) Oklahoma City bombing was “considered the worst and the largest terrorist act eve...

    Read More

  • Ethos Pathos Logos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    King reminds the reader that racial injustices engulf the community by stating, “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the united states. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatments in the courts. There have been many bombings of Negro homes and Churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are hard, brutal facts.”

    Read More

  • History Revealed in "Mississippi Burning"

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    History was often displayed in the film Mississippi Burning. For example, three civil rights workers known as James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, were murdered in the year 1964. These young men were real human beings visiting Philadelphia, Mississippi to help register African-Americans’ voting rights. Throughout the 1960’s,...

    Read More

  • The Real Life Events Illustrated in The Ballad of Birmingham, by Dudley Randall

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author, Dudley Randall, illustrates the conflict and irony between the mother and her child. The mother only wants to protect her child from the dangers that await her, but the child on the other hand, only wants to be a part of the Freedom March in Birmingham, Alabama. “The Ballad of Birmingham” was written about the real life events of the bombing that took place in Birmingham, Alabama at the church of Martin Luther King, Jr by white terrorists. Though the bombing was tragic and resulted in the death of four innocent African American girls and injuring fourteen other people, the racist bombing was a dramatic turning point in the United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Dudley Randall shows that even though the mother has good intentions, they are not good enough to protect her daughter from an untimely death.

    Read More

  • The Birmingham Bombings: Views of Martin Luther King and Jessie Jackson

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    The bombings and marches in Birmingham Alabama were major concerns for all civil rights leaders. During the 50’s and 60’s, civil rights leaders fought against injustice in different ways. Some civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Jessie Jackson fought against injustice with a pen. In 1963 Martin Luther King wrote a letter titled, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, and Jessie Jackson wrote, “Jets of Water Blast Civil Rights Demonstrators, Birmingham, 1963.” Martin Luther King and Jessie Jackson are two civil rights leaders of different generations, but with similar views concerning the Birmingham bombings.

    Read More

  • Orangeburg Massacre Essay

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    On February 8th, 1968, shots were fired on a crowd of civil rights protesters and that day became known as one of the saddest days in South Carolina history. Many problems occurred in South Carolina, mostly between blacks and whites over issues about civil rights and segregation. These issues in South Carolina lasted many years and led to many events, protests, and even massacres that all resulted in sometimes very horrible outcomes but also bringing South Carolina one step further to getting rid of segregation. One horrible event that took place in the late 60’s was the Orangeburg Massacre that resulted in a few deaths and some injuries but also furthered integration in Orangeburg. In 1968, due to the conflict between civil rights protestors

    Read More

  • Ballad Of Birmingham

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    Dudley Randall's Ballad of Birmingham gives a poetic account of the bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963. The poem was written in ballad form to convey the mood of the mother to her daughter. The author also gives a graphic account of what the 1960's were like. Irony played a part also in the ballad showing the church as the warzone and the freedom march as the safer place to be.

    Read More

  • What Is Mlk Thesis In Letter From Birmingham Jail

    180 Words  | 1 Pages

    He begins his letter by amplification to the white sacred leaders as of why he has touched down in Birmingham. The first cause brought about is that he was invited there and secondly because inequality is

    Read More

  • The Scottsboro Trials

    2407 Words  | 5 Pages

    Goodman, J. (1994). Stories of Scottsboro; The rape case that shocked 1930’s America and revived the struggle for equality. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

    Read More

  • The Mississippi Burnings: The Life Of The Mississippi Burnings

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sam Bowers, the imperial wizard of the white knights of the KKK of Mississippi, sent word in May, 1964 to the Klansmen of Lauderdale and Neshoba County that it was time to activate “plan 4” (Linder). Plan 4 provided for “the elimination” of the despised civil rights activists, was at Mount Zion church during a meeting. It was unsuccessful because they couldn’t find who they were exactly looking for. After getting news of the attempt of execution the three civil rights activists left the Mississippi summer project to go to Longdale to learn what they could about the disturbing news of the attempted execution.

    Read More

  • The Dirty South

    1402 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the times of the Civil Rights Movement the black communities of Birmingham, Alabama suffered severely due to the notorious acts of racism geared towards them simply because they were black. They boldly endured beatings, lynching, bombings, and demeaning treatment from the white community and especially from the Clan. The September 15, 1963 racially motivated bombing of the Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which resulted in the deaths of four innocent black girls, was one of the darkest moments of the Civil Rights Movement and perhaps one of the darkest days in Birmingham, Alabama’s history. Betty Blackman was born and raised in Birmingham. Her life was engulfed by the racism and left her with dramatically scaring memories of Birmingham.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Paradise Lost

    2493 Words  | 5 Pages

    On the evening of May 5, 1993, three boys from West Memphis, Arkansas, were last seen riding their bikes together. In the early evening, Chris Byers' stepfather, John Mark Byers, reported that his stepson had not come home and he was becoming worried. The police were also notified of two other boys who had been with Chris and were considered missing, Michael Moore, and Stevie Branch. The police and the parents of the missing children searched the neighborhood unsuccessfully until 3AM the next morning. The bodies of the three eight year old boys were discovered in a wooded area in Robin Hood Hills the next day at 1:30 PM. The boys had been hog-tied and severely beaten. Their naked bodies were located in a shallow creek in an isolated patch of woods behind the Blue Beacon truck wash. However, the question that remains until this day is whether justice was served in this case. Perhaps you are not familiar with the West Memphis Three, otherwise known as the Robin Hood Hill Murders. Most people would not of heard of this case unless they were citizens of the small town; however, HBO produced a documentary, "Paradise Lost," which graphically showed this case in a different light. This Peabody Award winning documentary brought the story of this crime and its aftermath into the national spotlight in 1996. The implication it left was that satanic panic, public hysteria and media sensationalism was responsible for the convictions in the case, not solid evidence. This is a shattering account of what a fundamentalist community in the south can accomplish toward the blatant destruction of American justice.

    Read More

  • Compare Letter From Birmingham Jail And I Have A Dream

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning of the letter he says "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here." this affirmation cause an impact over the readers who do not see the city with eyes of those who suffer, therefore part of the audience get a little angre. And he follows with a biblical allusion comparing he and Apostle Paul "Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid." appealing for people's beliefs, but also letting some offended. That is not the only time he uses allusion with this purpose in this text, a few paragraphs further he says "Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half

    Read More

More about 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Essay

Open Document