{"id":4709,"date":"2019-11-08T08:02:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T14:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=4709"},"modified":"2020-02-05T20:51:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T02:51:43","slug":"a-eulogy-for-the-1963-birmingham-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/11\/08\/a-eulogy-for-the-1963-birmingham-bombing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Eulogy for the 1963 Birmingham Bombing"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 15, 1963<\/strong>: A bomb goes off at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four young African American girls are killed during church services, 14 more are injured.<\/p>\n

September 16, 1963<\/strong>: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy speak on the tragedy, each calling it cruel and charged by racial hatred and injustice.<\/p>\n

1965: <\/strong>Suspects of the bombing emerge. Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss, and Herman Frank Cash\u2014four members of the Ku Klux Klan. Witnesses don\u2019t speak up and physical evidence is determined insufficient, so no charges are filed.<\/p>\n

1976: <\/strong>Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopens the case.<\/p>\n

1977-now: <\/strong>Chambliss, Cherry, and Blanton are each eventually charged with the bombing. Chambliss and Cherry died in prison; Blanton was denied parole in 2016. Cash dies without being formally charged.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, this timeline is missing an event not typically added to timelines of the Birmingham bombing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>November 18, 1963: <\/strong>Jazz performer, John Coltrane, records \u201cAlabama\u201d which, although never verbally confirmed by Coltrane, is known as a musical eulogy for the victims of Birmingham.<\/p>\n