Willoughby Anderson, Schiff Hardin - "The Past on Trial: The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing and Civil Rights History"
Willoughby Anderson, Schiff Hardin
The Past on Trial: The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing and Civil Rights History
Beginning in 1963, this paper examines how challenges to segregation laws in Birmingham sparked political and violent resistance, culminating in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Movement activism prompted not only a change in the structure of local government, but a showdown over federalism and the meaning of constitutional guarantees. Looking at the city’s history after the 1960s, I explore local individuals’ continuing pursuit of equal justice under the law and the eventual trials of the bombers. Birmingham holds a unique place in civil rights history, as the moral dark before the dawn of the Civil Rights Act. Yet Birmingham’s history after the 1960s resembles many other American cities in its struggles with economic stratification, failing schools, and the legacies of injustice. With this paper I am thinking through three broad themes: (1) how Birmingham’s story fits within a national narrative of the post-civil rights era; (2) the differing citizen and academic perspectives on civil rights and its meanings; and (3) how the criminal justice system is an integral part of the civil rights story. I look forward to your comments.
Paper: Click here
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