Beyond Birmingham: Dozens of Southern Black Churches Faced Bombings and Arsons During the Civil Rights Era

The anniversary of the 1963 explosion at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church highlights a broader campaign of violence against Black houses of worship during the civil-rights movement. A research team has plotted about 145 bombings and arsons from roughly 1954 to 1970, often aligning with local organizing efforts. Examples include three bomb attacks on Birmingham’s Bethel Baptist Church and the 1956 blast that damaged Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth’s parsonage, as well as the burning of four Albany, Georgia churches tied to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Later waves saw around 200 Southeast churches torched in the 1990s, and recent incidents such as the 2025 arson at Memphis’s Clayborn Temple and the 2015 Charleston shooting. The study aims to preserve the memory of these assaults, which were intended to cripple the Black community’s organizational core.