Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Sunday

Jury Selection Begins Monday for 1963 Church Bombing Case

Aired April 15, 2001 - 16:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: It was a pivotal time in the early 1960s for the civil rights movement. In 1963, the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham was bombed, killing four young black girls. And 37 years later, jury selection in the trial of two remaining suspects is set to begin tomorrow. CNN's national correspondent Brian Cabell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunday morning September 15, 1963. The scene was horrific. Birmingham's 16th Street church had been bombed. Four girls -- three of them 14, one 11 -- were killed in the explosion as they prepared for the church service.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt a sickness in my stomach.

CABELL: Reverend Abraham Lincoln Woods, a civil rights leader at the time, remembers the anger he felt as he gazed at the rubble at the church.

REVEREND ABRAHAM LINCOLN WOODS, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: If these terrorists, if these fanatics wanted to kill somebody, why didn't they single out those of us who were actively involved in the civil rights struggle?

CABELL: It was perhaps the most dastardly act in the entire civil rights era, when Alabama Governor George Wallace was railing against integration.

It was a time when the Ku Klux Klan demonstrated and terrorized publicly and proudly. Birmingham Police Chief Bull Conner (ph) turned his dogs and his hoses on civil rights protesters.

The 16th Street Baptist church was the protest headquarters. Even children were involved in the demonstrations and many were arrested. 14 years after the bombing, Klansman Robert Chambliss (ph) was convicted of murder in the bombing and died in prison in 1985. Another suspect died before he was charged. That leaves two suspects: fellow Klansmen Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry.

They were to be tried together, but a judge last week ruled that the 71-year-old Cherry was not mentally competent to assist his attorneys and might never be tried. Only Blanton now faces trial for the bombing. Authorities say in the trial, they will produce audio tapes from a hidden microphone in Blanton's home in 1964. They reportedly also have a mystery witness that will implicate Blanton. Times have changed in Birmingham.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think the people fear if they get up there somebody will burn a cross in their front yard and try to blow their house up.

CABELL: 16th Street Baptist church is thriving today, times are more peaceful, but the sense of injustice in a town once called Bombingham lingers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice seemed to be mighty slow, even after 37 years; this case seemed to be moving very slowly.

CABELL: Thomas Blanton's trial is expected to last several weeks.

Brian Cabell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com