It was an attack on their whole self-image, their own self-worth and how they saw themselves.” It wasn’t just an attack on the social system that they lived in that was segregated. “So, I think this accounts for a lot of the reason that people like Chambliss reacted so violently to civil rights activity. “His self-worth comes from the fact that there’s this whole other group of people he can look down upon and dominate,” explains Baggett. Baggett says one element was race-not that of his victims. Prosecutors at the time called him a skilled bomb maker, responsible for several racially motivated attacks in Birmingham, though the number isn’t clear. In 1963, Chambliss was better known by his nickname, Dynamite Bob. There’s no acceptance of responsibility at all.” “There’s a lot of self-pity and he presents himself as a victim and he never acknowledges any involvement in the bombings. “Chambliss is almost entirely focused on himself in these letters,” says Baggett. ChamblissĪrchivist Jim Baggett has been studying those decade-old letters in detail. Put in your letter so it won’t cost her postage.Īnswer soon, Your loving husband, R.E. Governor’s staff over her to talk to me tell our little Babby to write one. Wrote the governor a nice 2 1/2 page letter. Mommie I ask you again did you talk to the governor. Yes Mommie you told me and told me you called the Governor. The handwritten letters, and the pictures they paint from that time, can now be found with just a short ride down a creaky elevator to the bowels of the Archives Department at the Birmingham Public Library. It’s here where Chambliss wrote letters to his family during his time in prison. Clair County Correctional Facility, about 40 miles northeast of Birmingham. Robert Chambliss was found guilty of his part in the attack. It would take 14 years before the first Klansman was tried and convicted in the bombing. Four young girls were killed in the blast. Pat Duggins, News Director, Alabama Public Radio.ĥ0 years ago, a bomb exploded at the 16 th street Baptist Church in Birmingham. That material aired around the 50th anniversary of Dr. That prompted me, a year later, to invite him to take part in APR series and documentary on King's connection to Alabama. He explained to me how there are roads and parks named for Martin Luther King, junior. That's where we first met Ousmane Sagara of the West African nation of Mali. In January of 2016, we participated in an international journalism exchange program. APR's civil rights coverage is international in scope. If you'd like to hear more of Alabama Public Radio's award winning work on the civil rights movement, click below.
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