Birmingham Justice
Nearly four decades later, Bobby Frank Cherry is convicted in the Birmingham church bombing
Wednesday, as word swept through the courthouse that a verdict had been reached, a crush of spectators pressed into the downtown courtroom. The forewoman began to read: “In the case of the State of Alabama versus Bobby Frank Cherry, we find the defendant guilty…”
And with that, after 39 years, the case that has haunted Birmingham, Ala. and is credited with awakening the nation to the savagery of the civil rights struggle in the South finally came to an end. Former Ku Klux Klansman Cherry, 71, was found guilty of four counts of murder in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963 that killed four young girls.
Four men had long been suspected in the blast. One, Thomas E. Blanton, was convicted last year and is now serving life. ‘Dynamite’ Bob Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and died in jail. The fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died in 1994 without being charged.
As the verdict was read, Cherry slumped back in his chair. He had been convicted of plotting the blast and planting the bomb that killed Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, and Carole Robertson, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11. But Cherry remained unrepentant. “I have done nothing,” he told the court after the verdict. “For years Doug Jones and some others have been telling lies about me. I don’t know why I’m having to go to jail.”
He was then handcuffed by deputies and led out.
Addie Mae Collins’ sister, Junie Collins Peavy, who was in the church sanctuary at the time of the blast, wiped tears after the verdict. “We just want it all to be over. It’s been such a long time.”
June 10th, 2002 at 9:44 pm
I recently finished reading “Carry Me Home” by Diane McWhorter, partly because of the Cherry Trial and partly because I had a job offer from a publication in B-Ham. The story of the Wild Man of Birmingham, Fred Shuttleworth, is amazing. Glad your site came up in Daypop. I will keep you bookmarked, and keep up the good work!
October 15th, 2002 at 7:39 pm
I would really like to find an email address for Junie Collins Peavy to get a possible interview from her for a school paper. I would really appreciate this information.
THank you, Jessica Van Osdell
jessicavanosdell@msn.com
March 14th, 2003 at 7:23 pm
I wish you would publish more about Strom Thurmonds White Supremacy days. The man was a menace to society and yet was in the senate untill he was 100 You can see a copy of the Dixiecrat Platform at: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/dixiecrat1.html
Post it with a picture of him and GWB yukking iy up together
Pongo