Attorneys to speak on impact of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
Bill Baxley, former Alabama attorney general, was only in law school at The University of Alabama at the time of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963.
“I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what,” said Baxley, founder Baxley, Dillard, McKnight & James law firm.
After he took office as Alabama’s attorney general in 1971, he reopened the bombing investigation and requested evidence from the FBI and building trust with key witnesses who had been reluctant to testify in the first trial.
Another Birmingham attorney, Doug Jones, also had to wait to begin his pursuit for justice for the victims of the bombing.
Jones, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, was 9 years old in 1963. But about 40 years later, Jones, founder of Jones & Hawley law firm, lead the prosecution of two of the former Ku Klux Klansmen responsible for the bombing.
To recant these struggles for justice, the Canterbury Center of Canterbury United Methodist Church will hold a public presentation, “Justice Delayed, Not Justice Denied: The Prosecution of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Cases,” on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 4 p.m.
The presentation will focus on personal and historical impacts of this event and the surrounding events in Birmingham.
Sponsored by the Birmingham Bar Association, the Magic City Bar Association and Canterbury, the event is free and open to the public.
The Canterbury Center of Canterbury United Methodist Church is located at 3350 Overbrook Road.
For more, contact Laura Dabbs at laura.dabbs@canterburyumc.org or at 874-1561, or visit canterburyumc.org.