Justice Department Reopens Probe of ’63 Church Bombing
Citing new information, the Justice Department said Thursday it has reopened its investigation of a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls and changed the course of the civil rights movement.
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, along with the slayings of three young civil rights workers in Mississippi the following year, helped expose the depth of racial hatred in the South. It has been credited by many with building congressional support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A member of the Ku Klux Klan, Robert Chambliss, was convicted on state murder charges in 1977 when then-Alabama Atty. Gen. Bill Baxley renewed the probe after it had languished for more than a decade.
Chambliss died in prison in 1985 at age 81 while serving a life term. He never admitted participating in the bombing, and authorities for years have been stymied in pursuing evidence against at least three others believed involved.
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