Tommy Blanton may be gone, but we still have work to do.”Ĭopyright 2020 WSFA 12 News. At this moment in our nation when we have all come to realize that the journey to racial justice has taken far too long, we must come together. “However, what the families of those girls, and the entire community of Birmingham, do know today is that when we come together and demand justice, we can achieve it. That he died at this moment, when the country is trying to reconcile the multi-generational failure to end systemic racism, seems fitting.” The fact that after the bombing, he went on to remain a free man for nearly four decades speaks to a broader systemic failure to hold him and his accomplices accountable. “Tommy Blanton is responsible for one of the darkest days in Alabama’s history, and he will go to his resting place without ever having atoned for his actions or apologizing to the countless people he hurt. senator, also reacted the man’s death saying: Although his passing will never fully take away the pain or restore the loss of life, I pray on behalf of the loved ones of all involved that our entire state can continue taking steps forward to create a better Alabama for future generations.ĭoug Jones, who prosecuted Blanton’s case prior to becoming a U.S. That was a dark day that will never be forgotten in both Alabama’s history and that of our nation. His role in the hateful act on Septemstole the lives of four innocent girls and injured many others. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil. “While serving a life sentence, Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr., the last surviving 16th Street Baptist Church bomber, has passed away from natural causes. Ivey released a statement on Blanton’s death. died of natural causes while servicing a life sentence for the 1963 crime that killed four African-American girls and injured others. Ivey’s office said Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. (WSFA) - The last surviving bomber of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church has died in prison, Alabama Gov. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted of a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest. Evidence against Blanton included secret recordings that were made using FBI bugs at his home and in the car of a fellow Klansman turned informant.īlanton can be considered for parole again in five years.Ĭopyright 2016 The Associated Press. Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, and Bobby Frank Cherry, who was convicted in the bombing in 2002, have both died in prison.īlanton and Cherry were indicted in 2000 after the FBI reopened an investigation of the bombing. Long a suspect in the case, Blanton was the second of three people convicted in the bombing. attorney who prosecuted Blanton on the state charge, had previously said Blanton shouldn't be released since he has never accepted responsibility for the bombing or expressed any remorse for a crime that was aimed at maintaining racial separation at a time Birmingham's public schools were facing a court order to desegregate. was a young Ku Klux Klansman with a reputation for hating blacks in 1963, when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four black girls. 2016, Blanton, the last living convicted bomber, is denied parole. Their deaths inside a church on a Sunday morning became a symbol worldwide of the depth of racial hatred in the segregated South.ĭoug Jones, a former U.S. committed by four known Klansmen and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. The girls, who were inside the church preparing for worship, died instantly in a hail of bricks and stone that seriously injured Collins' sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph. The blast killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Morris, also known as Cynthia Wesley. church bombing up for paroleīlanton is the last surviving KKK member convicted of murder in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church.īlanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 for being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a dynamite bomb that exploded outside the church on Sept.
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