A sign reads “Black Lives Matter” at the 16th Street Baptist Church, a Civil Rights historical site where four young girls were killed in a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1953, on March 27, 2021, in Birmingham, Alabama. | Source: PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty UPDATED: 12:30 a.m. ET, Sept. 15, 2022 Originally published Sept. 15, 2018 Friday marked the 60th anniversary of white supremacists’ deadly bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The act of terror by four members of the KKK at the historic Black church killed four little girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11. Nearly two dozen others were injured in the blast that used dynamite. “Sixty years ago, on Sept. 15, 1963, four white terrorists bombed a church in Birmingham, Alabama, and killed four Black girls. Had they lived, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson would have been 71 by now. Addie Mae Collins would have been 74,” Duke University historian Adriane Lentz-Smith said in a statement. “Instead, they remain 11 and 14 forever, enshrined as ‘Four Little Girls,’ in the Spike Lee documentary of the same name and in civil rights histories that trace how much blood was spilled trying to convince Americans in the 1960s that Black lives matter.” Sarah Collins Rudolph, a bombing victim who lost an eye from the explosion, previously told the Associated Press that she blames the segregationist Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace for inciting the violence on that fateful day. “If they hadn’t stirred up all that racist hate that was going on at the time I don’t believe that church would have been bombed,” Rudolph said. Former Sen. Doug Jones, who successfully prosecuted two men for the bombing decades ago, recounted the case earlier this year while working as the Jerome Lyle Rappaport distinguished visiting professor at Boston College Law School. “It is history because what happened in Birmingham, and particularly on September 15, 1963, was one of those real horrific acts of the civil rights era,” Jones recalled. “It is part of Birmingham’s history, but more importantly, it’s part of America’s history.” Following the Birmingham Church Bombing, the community reacted by staging a protest, which resulted in a violent reaction from police. The church was a frequent meeting place for prominent civil rights leaders and leading Black voices, including Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, it was those fateful series of events that helped prompt King’s famous Letter From Birmingham which stated “his decision not to call off the demonstrations in the face of continued bloodshed at the hands of local law enforcement officials,” History.com reminded readers. President Barack Obama would go on to sign a bill awarding the four young victims of the tragic 1963 Birmingham church bombing with the Congressional Gold Medal. Barbara Cross, a friend of the girls who survived the church bombing, once recounted to TIME how close she was to possibly being the fifth person killed. “I will never stop crying thinking about it,” said Cross, who was 13 at the time. The last surviving bomber was denied parole in 2016 and remained in prison for his role in the mass murder. Keep scrolling to see vintage images paired with more recent photos from the bombing, its violent aftermath and resulting protests demanding justice. The post 16th Street Baptist Church Birmingham Bombing Photos, Then And Now appeared first on NewsOne. 16th Street Baptist Church Birmingham Bombing Photos, Then And Now was originally published on newsone.com