Negro Churches Bombed

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29724, 18 January 1962, Page 13

Negro Churches Bombed

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

BIRMINGHAM (Alabama), January 17.

Three negro churches in Birmingham were bombed late last night. Two received severe damage. A police officer was reported injured in the last explosion.

Two of the bombings took place within minutes of each other in the negro section of Birmingham. The third occurred about 40 minutes later, several streets away, United Press International reported Police officers said the last explosion took place about 100 yards in front of a poli~e car. A policeman riding in the car was injured in the blast and was taken to a Birmingham hospital. The final blast occurred at Trinity Qhurch of God. Earlier blasts shook the Bethel Baptist Church and St. Luke’s African Methodist Episcopal Church. Police said they were searching for a 19-year-old youth seen running near the scene of the final blast. Officers said the type of explosive used at the churches had not yet been determined. A large hole was reported blown in the side of new Bethel and windows were reported blown out at all three churches. Residents of the areas around the three churches reported that windows in their homes were blasted out and the electrical service w’as disrupted.

The city’s Fire Marshal, Mr Aaron Rosenfeld, said the first blast was caused by dynamite. The bomb landed about 15ft in front of the new Bethel Baptist church, knocking a hole in a concrete path and scattering pieces of concrete over a wide area. Windows in the lower level of the building were knocked out.

Police said the youth they were looking for was a negro. Earlier reports said a white youth was seen running from the site of the third explosion. The motive of the bombings was not known. None of the churches was occupied at the time of the blasts Birmingham was the scene of several clashes between negroes and whites in interracial disturbances last year