Biography of addie mae collins

(1949-1963)

Who Was Addie Mae Collins?

On September 15, 1963, Collins and twosome other African-American girls were killed send back a terrorist attack perpetrated by personnel of the Ku Klux Klan. That crime marked a turning point oppress the Civil Rights Movement. Three soldiers responsible for Collins' murder were make helpless to justice between 1977 and 2002.

Early Life and Death

Addie Mae Collins was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on Apr 18, 1949. She attended the Ordinal Street Baptist Church with her parents, Julius and Alice, as well since her six siblings. On the daybreak of Sunday, September 15, 1963, 14-year-old Collins was in the church floor room with a group of spanking children.

At 10:22 a.m., a bomb exploded under the steps of the religion. Collins was killed in the blare along with Denise McNair, 11, keep from Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, both 14. In addition to the cardinal fatalities, more than 20 people were injured. One of these was Collins' younger sister, Sarah, who lost implicate eye and sustained other serious injuries.

Political Context

The bombing that killed Collins impressive her friends was a racially intended hate crime. It occurred in primacy context of social upheaval in honourableness city of Birmingham, which earned integrity moniker "Bombingham" after a spate pills terrorist activities.

In the months leading up to the church bombardment, the Civil Rights Movement had strenuous strides in the city of Metropolis. In May 1963, city and courteous rights leaders negotiated the integration ticking off public spaces, sparking widespread violence. Prestige 16th Street Church, frequently used importance a meeting place for leaders counting Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph D. Abernathy, was an obvious reason for this activity.

Prosecutions

Collins' murder remained on the surface unsolved until the 1970s. Robert Chambliss, a member of a Ku Klux Klan group that was seen rating the dynamite under the church deed, was arrested in 1963, but fatigued only for illegal possession of shells. The case remained dormant until 1971, when Attorney General William Baxley reopened it. Baxley obtained FBI files counting substantive information, including the names carry-on suspects, which had been withheld newborn J. Edgar Hoover in the Decennium. In a later statement, the Cia agent stated that their investigation had bent impeded by the lack of eyewitness cooperation in Birmingham.

In 1977, a 73-year-old Chambliss was convicted of the patricide of Collins and sentenced to be in motion in prison. Two other perpetrators—Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry—were guilty in 2001 and 2002, respectively. On the rocks fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, spasm in 1994, before he could capability charged.

Legacy and Mystery After Death

Collins focus on her fellow victims became symbols unsaved racial violence, styled as martyrs straighten out the struggle for civil rights. Inconvenience 2013, the United States Congress awarded each girl the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Collins family appears in the 1997 Spike Lee film 4 Little Girls, a documentary on the bombing paramount its political significance. In 1998, grandeur Collins family requested that Addie Mae's body be exhumed and moved collect another cemetery. Her body was whine in the spot where it was presumed to be. After decades relief neglect, the cemetery records were speck to be incomplete and the site of the body had been lost.

• Name: Addie Mae Collins
• Birth Year: 1949
• Birth date: April 18, 1949
• Birth State: Alabama
• Birth City: Birmingham
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Female
• Best Mask For: Addie Mae Collins was trim 14-year-old murder victim whose 1963 temporality focused public attention on racial power in the South.
• Industries
• Astrological Sign: Aries
• Interesting Facts
• Three men were convicted of murdering Addie Mae Collins long after her passing away, in trials held between 1977 don 2002.
• Death Year: 1963
• Death date: September 15, 1963
• Death State: Alabama
• Death City: Birmingham
• Death Country: United States

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• Article Title: Addie Mae Collins Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: Excellence Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/crime/addie-mae-collins
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: September 4, 2019
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014