Birmingham church bombing wasn’t an isolated act of terrorism – there were dozens of attacks on Black houses of worship during the Civil Rights Movement

More than 100 Black churches across the South were targeted from the 1950s-70s. Another wave of violence followed in the ‘90s – and there have been attacks in recent years, too.

By: Jason Wollschleger, Whitworth University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: August 19, 2026

Words: 1,036

Last Updated: 2 months ago

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By Jason Wollschleger, Whitworth University

Sept. 15 marks the anniversary of an infamous terror attack: the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. On that Sunday morning, members of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, planted dynamite on the east side of the brown brick building.

The bomb went off in the midst of Sunday school, at 10:22 a.m., murdering four girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole …

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