Episode #31

Special 3-Part Series:

Domestic Terrorism: Then and Now Part 1

Join Sara and Misasha as they take a look back in time. This is the first part of a special three part series, starting with the church bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

Just two months before President Kennedy’s assassination, the Birmingham church bombings occurred, and four young girls lost their lives. That long-ago act of terrorism has implications in what has gone on in more recent years.

What do moments like this in history do to our psyche? Listen in to find out more.

“We’ve seen that the fear and resentment of the nation’s growing diversity is still at the heart of the hate that’s swelling across this country.” Misasha

Show Highlights:

September 15, 2019 marked 56 years since these four young girls were murdered at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Ku Klux Klan was trying to intimidate Civil Rights activists who used the predominantly African-American church as a rallying point and an organizing hub.
The KKK members planted a bomb under the building’s steps and detonated at 10:22 AM on Youth Sunday, which was a day dedicated to the church’s young members. These girls were getting ready for the service in a basement lounge.
Sarah Collins Rudolph was a survivor of the bombing and often called “The Fifth Girl”. Sara recounts Ms. Rudolph’s memory of that day and its lasting effects.
Addie Mae Collins, 14; Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14, were killed by this bomb, and 20 others were injured.
Dr. Martin Luther King gave the eulogy at the funerals and called the attack “One of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetuated against humanity.”
He sent a telegram to then-Alabama Governor George Wallace, who was known as the state’s top segregationist, telling him that “the blood of our little children is on your hands”. The reason for this is that ten days before the bombing, Wallace had railed against the Civil Rights Movement to the New York Times, saying, “What this country needs is a few first class funerals.”
About 100 years before the Birmingham church bombings, there was the Dred Scott Decision. Misasha provides an overview of Dred Scott, the slave whose owner had lived in a free state and territory. When his owner died, Mr. Scott filed suit on behalf of himself and his wife to gain their freedom. The court decision said that he was not free based on his residence because he was not considered a person, but property, under the U.S. Constitution.
One person who was publicly upset over the Dred Scott decision was Abraham Lincoln, a rising figure in the newly-formed Republican party. Misasha points out that this Republican party is not the same one that exists today.
In 1858, the Dred Scott case became a focal point of the famous debate between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. These debates are otherwise known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
This decision made the Republican party a national force and led to the division of what used to be called the Democratic party in the 1860 Presidential elections. This growing power of the Republicans, who received a lot of support from the north, directly led to fears in the south that slavery would be ended. Those fears snowballed and started the movement towards what would become the Civil War.
Dred Scott died in 1858, about a year after he and his family had gained their freedom. His owner, under pressure from her husband, sent the Scotts back to their original owners who promptly set him free.
Charles Sumner, a leading radical Republican at the time, said, “I declare that the opinion of the Chief Justice in the case of Dred Scott was more thoroughly abominable than anything of the kind in the history of the courts. Judicial-basedness reached its lowest point on that occasion.”
Charles Sumner had been brutally beaten and almost killed on the senate floor in 1856 when he made anti-slavery remarks.
After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution effectively overturned the Dred Scott Decision.
Eighteen years post Dred Scott, Black Americans would not only have citizenship but would be guaranteed the right to vote and equal access to transportation, housing, and other facilities by the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
This was short-lived, as in 1883, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was found unconstitutional and in 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson established the Separate but Equal Doctrine.
This whole rollback and the struggle that ensued from that led to the Civil Rights Movement almost 100 years later.
Birmingham was dubbed “Bombingham” because violent attacks on the Civil Rights Movement in the city were common.
J. Edgar Hoover was FBI Director at the time and he blocked prosecution of the case, and the FBI failed to turn over thousands of files to prosecutors including audio surveillance tapes.
It wasn’t until 1977 that the first of four Klansmen behind the crime was brought to trial by the State Attorney General and convicted. In the mid-1990’s two others were convicted by Federal prosecutors. The fourth person died before being charged.
The last surviving Klansmen is still in prison and one of the two convicted in the mid-1990’s. Thomas Edwin Blanton, is 79 and has been up for parole twice. He has not expressed any remorse nor accepted any responsibility.
Misasha explains how money matters eventually brought down the KKK and how the Birmingham church bombings galvanized the nation and pushed the movement forward, whereby ten months after the bombing Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in public accommodations.
Today, a memorial named “Four Spirits” stands across the street from the church where the bombing happened, with the description, “Love Forgives”, which was the title of the pastor’s undelivered sermon the date of the bombing.
Dr. King eulogy included these words, “This afternoon, in a real sense, the four girls have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred, and the spoiled meat of racism. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Hate is nothing new, we’ve known this for centuries, and many of us have experienced it firsthand. But it is on the rise, we are seeing a surge of white nationalism and racist violence across the country. This violence can mix anybody up into the fray. We have to all be thinking about this.”
Next week in PART TWO of this 3-part series, Sara and Misasha will discuss one of the key instances that led into this modern wave of terrorism, which is the Charleston bombing in 2015, Dylann Roof, and the internet.