AMY GOODMAN: Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a watershed moment in the civil rights movement. On September 15, 1963, a dynamite blast planted by the Ku Klux Klan killed four little girls in the church. Denise McNair was 11 years old. Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins were all 14. Twenty other people were injured. No one was arrested for the bombings for 14 years.

We turn now to world-renowned author, activist, scholar, Angela Davis, professor emerita at University of California, Santa Cruz. She spoke last night in Oakland, California, at an event organized by the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University School of Law.

ANGELA DAVIS: And remembering and paying tribute to this tragic event, let us not pretend that we are simultaneously celebrating the end of racist violence and the triumph of democracy. Let us also not labor under the illusion that this church bombing was an anomaly. We know that Robert Chambliss, who was eventually convicted of carrying out the bombing, along with three others—we know that he had been responsible for bombing black homes and churches over so many years. As a matter of fact, during the eight years prior to the church bombing, there had been 21 bombings in Birmingham. This man’s nickname was “Dynamite Bob.” He was known in white communities, you know, talking about terrorism. And I want to emphasize the importance of understanding how much terrorism, racist terrorism, has shaped the history of this country. And there are lessons we need to learn from that.

But I’ve often pointed out that some of my very earliest childhood memories are the sounds of dynamite exploding. Homes across the street from where I grew up were bombed when they were purchased by black people who were moving into a neighborhood that had been zoned for whites. So many bombings took place in the neighborhood where I grew up—and we now know that Chambliss was probably responsible—that the neighborhood came to be called “Dynamite Hill.” And, of course, as you know, the city of Birmingham was known as “Bombingham.” In fact, on September 4th, 1963, less than two weeks before the 16th Street church bombing, the home of the leading civil rights attorney in Birmingham, Arthur Shores, was bombed. And that house was right down the street from our house.

You’ve also heard that, from Vukani Mawethu and from Margaret, that on the day of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, two other black youth were killed: Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware. Bombings continued to plague black communities in Birmingham after September 15th, and everyone, including the FBI, knew who was behind them. But Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss was simply charged with the possession of dynamite. And J. Edgar Hoover refused to reveal the evidence that theFBI had gathered against the perpetrators, so that there was no trial during that period. SHOW FULL TRANSCRIPT.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/16/terrorism_is_part_of_our_history