16th Street Baptist Church Bombing September 15, 1963

On September 15 1963 at 10:22am, a bomb went off in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls. It was a seminal act of cowardice. And it had the unintended effect of changing the perpetrators world forever. In the words of Rev. Jesse Jackson, " We were able to transform a crucifixion into resurrection.

The church served not only as a place of spiritual renewal, but as the base of operations for African Americans tired, quite literally, of sitting at the back of the bus, drinking from "colored" water fountains and having to explain to their children why they couldn't eat at a department store lunch counter.

The bomb exploded during Sunday school, killing Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson, all 14, and Carol Denise McNair, 11. The lives awaiting them were destroyed in what one hopes was a blast too sudden and too loud for their young minds to fully comprehend.

The murders were left hanging, unexplained, for more than a decade until a career criminal named Robert Chambliss was brought to trial and convicted. His nickname: "Dynamite Bob."