Last KKKer convicted in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing has died.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — 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 single attack of the civil rights movement, has died in prison, the governor's office said Friday. He was 81.
In May 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
When asked by the judge if he had any comment, Blanton said: “I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.”
Gov. Kay Ivey's office said Blanton died of natural causes.
The church bombing, exposing the depths of hatred by white supremacists as Birmingham integrated its public schools, was a tipping point of the civil rights movement. Moderates could no longer remain silent and the fight to topple segregation laws gained new momentum.
The investigation into the bombing was stalled early and left dormant for long stretches, but two other ex-Klansmen, Robert Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry, also were convicted in the bombing in separate trials. Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and died in prison in 1985. Cherry was convicted in 2002 and died in prison in 2004.
On Sept. 15, 1963, a bomb ripped through an exterior wall of the brick church, killing four girls who were inside preparing for a youth program. The bodies of Denise McNair, 11, and Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, all 14, were found in the downstairs lounge.
https://www.aol.com/thomas-blanton-convicted-1963-alabama-185900773.html
“I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.”
You got that right.
= new reply since forum marked as read
She said "I was always told, when someone dies, if you can't say anything good don't say anything. So, when someone told me Joan Crawford died and I said good."
