He was able to build trust with key witnesses, some of whom had been reluctant to testify in the first trial. The love the couple shared inspired her. Like most of the other victims' siblings, she also has artistic renderings of the four girls. It was too horrific to talk about, and she didn't want anyone to think she "wore it as a badge of honor." It became a perfect spot for meetings, sitting catty-corner from Kelly Ingram Park, a staging ground for marches. Within 24 hours of the bombing, a minimum of five businesses and properties had been firebombed and numerous cars—most of which were driven by whites—had been stoned by rioting youths.[10]. That they had another daughter almost exactly a year later, and then another, felt like a miracle. About the recordings made as Blanton conversed with Burns, Robbins emphasized that Burns had earlier testified that Blanton had never expressly said that he had made or planted the bomb. "God didn't let me fall on the floor," she says. He asked if she wanted to do anything about it. [21] The pastor of the church, the Reverend John Cross, recollected in 2001 that the girls' bodies were found "stacked on top of each other, clung together". She opens one to show an old black-and-white photograph of herself in a hospital bed, the bandages still covering her eyes.

In 2007, a few years after the death of her husband, Maxine moved to Minnesota to be close to family.

We were working together. Robbins also discredited the testimony of FBI agent William Fleming, who had earlier testified as to a government witness claiming he had seen Blanton in the vicinity of the church shortly before the bombing.

Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, newly-inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson continued to press for passage of the civil rights bill sought by his predecessor. But in this one there is a fifth girl in the picture -- Sarah. CrescentTide@gmail.com [60] Blanton pleaded not guilty to the charges and chose not to testify on his behalf throughout the trial. Maxine McNair, left, sits next to her daughter Kimberly McNair Brock, the younger of the two girls she had after Denise died. The blast blew out windows, filled the place with dust and debris, and destroyed a ladies restroom in the basement -- killing the four girls and injuring nearly two dozen people. He guesses this is because of the guilt he says he carries. As the years went on and Cynthia Wesley was mentioned in the media, he says he asked his mother if hearing that name bothered her. On Thursday, May 2, more than 1,000 students, some reportedly as young as eight, opted to leave school and gather at the 16th Street Baptist Church. He said this past was not the evidence upon which they should return their verdicts. In his rebuttal closing argument, defense attorney Art Hanes Jr. attacked the evidence presented by the prosecution as being purely circumstantial,[79] adding that, despite the existence of similar circumstantial evidence, Chambliss had not been prosecuted in 1963 of the church bombing. But they've moved through the world and made sense of the nonsensical in profoundly different ways. updated 11:30 AM EDT, Tue September 17, 2013, Legacy of Birmingham's 'four little girls'. Her parents shielded them from much of the ugliness. The couple, who had tried to have more children ever since Denise was born, came home to silence. The couple, who would later have a second daughter, always assumed they'd settle in Birmingham. Rather than letting them take buses, where they'd feel the indignity of sitting in the back, their parents insisted on driving them. "I could, to a degree, step into her shoes," she says, but they were different people. Chilling photographs of young people being attacked with fire hoses and by dogs show the church steps in the background.

"She'd pick glass from my face when it rose to the surface," Sarah says. Following the bombing, the 16th Street Baptist Church remained closed for over eight months, as assessments and, later, repairs were conducted upon the property.