16th Street Baptist Church bombing kills four Black girls in Alabama

On September 15, 1963, a dynamite bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four Black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair, aged 11 to 14. The blast also injured approximately 22 others.

The attack was carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan during a period of intense mobilization for civil rights and against racial segregation. The church had become a central hub for Black community organizing and political activities in Birmingham.

While the FBI identified the perpetrators, investigations were obstructed by then-Director J. Edgar Hoover, who prevented evidence from being passed to prosecutors, allowing the case to be archived without formal charges. The incident occurred within a broader context of systemic violence and Jim Crow laws in Alabama, where white supremacist groups frequently used bombings and intimidation to maintain segregation.