Research and Describe Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

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Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Racial conflicts characterized Birmingham, Alabama as its most prominent problem in the 1950s and 1960s. The city during this period won the title of the most racially intolerant city in America due to the blasting of twenty-one bombs in African American homes and churches, strong resistance towards desegregation and utilization of force and violence when dealing with civil rights protesters and union members. The 16th Street Baptist Church was a famous church whose location at the heart of the city’s commercial district made it an ideal meeting place and planning ground for essential community activities. As the meeting ground for mass actions, it became a target of white supremacist threats. The date of 15 September 1963 remains a haunting day for the United States and the world at large. The blasting of the church saw the death of four adolescents, injury of others, which brought the world to a standstill as the incident portrayed the level of hatred present in the country that propagated death, injuries and resulted in the strengthening of the civil societies.
According to the National Park Service, the Birmingham city’s position as a significant resistance city towards desegregation of African Americans and the whites, through the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan, utilizing violence as resistance to this move caused the attack. The federal court’s decision in its judgment to rule for the integration of the Alabama school system renewed fights between the two groups towards their beliefs (National Park Service). The civil rights organizers improved and strengthened their activities such as meetings and demonstrations to push for its implementation and involved leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. On the other hand, according to McBirney, the white supremacists increased their resistance by mounting numerous attacks and threats towards civil rights churches and homes using homemade bombs (McBirney 1). As a result, the city caved on desegregation of various aspects such as sharing of lunch counters, restrooms, and water fountains. Moreover, it approved the hiring of African Americas as sales representatives and clerks and released demonstrators from jails. All these concessions by the city became a threat to the significant control of the city by white population. The National Park Service observed that the 16th Street Church was conspicuous in the town whose location and stature as an iconic house of worship made it an ideal center for civil rights mass meetings and rallies. However, it became a sign of impending doom for the white supremacists. Thus they bombed it for revenge (National Park Service).
The bombing brought about the exposure of substantial violations of human rights of the African American community by the police and the white supremacists. According to Modern American Poetry, Birmingham was an infamous town marred by protests, violence and police brutality, which saw it called Bombingham. Civil rights movements pushing for desegregation often crashed with t...