Blacks Protest Ruling on Accused Church Bomber

Blacks singing civil rights anthems picketed a Birmingham courthouse to protest a judge’s ruling that an ex-Ku Klux Klansman is mentally unfit to stand trial in the ’63 church bombing that killed four black girls.

Demonstration leaders said Alabama has executed six mentally retarded black men since 1989, yet 72-year-old Bobby Frank Cherry apparently will go free without answering murder charges in the blast at 16th Street Baptist Church.

“There’s a different standard for white folks than for black folks,” said the Rev. Abraham Woods, local president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.”