KKK Member Who Bombed Black Church In 1963 Dies
Alabama Department of Corrections via APThomas Blanton, one of three KKK members convicted of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, died in June.
On Sept. 15, 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was blown up. A predominantly Black congregation, it had been targeted specifically by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) — and resulted in the deaths of four young girls.
Authorities arrested four KKK members for the horrific attack: Herman Cash, Bobby Frank Cherry, Robert Chambliss, and Thomas Blanton. Members of Birmingham’s Cahaba River Group, they comprised an offshoot of the Eastview Klavern No. 13.
Three of the suspects received late prosecutions for their crimes. One died before he could be charged. Blanton was the second to be prosecuted, and was convicted of murder. He was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison for the killings in May 2001 — nearly four decades after the fact.
In terms of noteworthy history news, his death in prison on June 26, 2020, certainly made the list.
At the time of his trial, Blanton was asked by the judge if he had any comment on what he had done. Blanton callously replied, “I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.” Apparently, that day came in the summer of 2020, when Blanton died of natural causes.
“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,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in her statement about the historical news.
The 1963 Alabama church bombing occurred in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Millions of Americans were horrified by the violence. The subsequent years saw an increase in support for desegregation and the passage of 1964’s Civil Rights Act.
Dave Martin/APThomas Blanton was convicted of the church bombing in 2001, nearly four decades after the attack.
While Blanton’s death made history news in 2020, the four young victims of the attack must never be forgotten: 11-year-old Denise McNair, as well as Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson, all age 14.
