05/02/01
CAROL ROBINSON
News staff writer

Robertson long ago accepted that she might not live long enough to see her daughter's killers meet with justice. But she clung to her belief that someday it would come.

At her Smithfield home at dusk Tuesday, she got the call that indeed her wait was over.

"I'm very happy with the verdict," Mrs. Robertson said. "It means there's two of them convicted, one dead and the other is ill, so we'll see. But justice has prevailed, I think."

For those closest to the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church - Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair - victory was bittersweet. The relief, they said, was tempered by the lingering hurt at the long time it took to get even partial resolution.

"My first response was, 'Thank God,' but then I got angry and upset," said Rhonda Nunn Thomas, a friend of Denise McNair. "It's been almost 40 years and they knew all along who did this.

 

Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies lead Thomas Blanton Jr., center, out of the courtroom in handcuffs after a jury convicted him of murder. AP Photo

"They've been allowed to live free and laugh and whatever else anyone does for 38 years and these children have been dead and gone. At least somebody finally said they were wrong."

Mrs. Thomas said the tears she and other children were forbidden to shed decades ago flowed freely Tuesday.

"We weren't supposed to cry in public and we obeyed because that's what we did. Then we'd go into the bathroom and cry because we didn't understand. How could we? We were 11 years old," she said. "Now it's all flooding down like this terrible current. It's a bit old and a bit new and like oil and water, that doesn't mix. They're still dead. The hurt is still there. But at least somebody is being held accountable."

One of Addie's sisters said the verdict is the beginning of the end of some of the pain.

"I think things in the future will improve for each family. We aren't left hanging anymore," Junie Peavy said. "I feel like I can go on with my life without being interrupted by this case being opened and closed, opened and closed."

The Collins family still grieves because Addie's remains are missing from a run-down cemetery. "As far as her body, I'm just having to come to a place where I trust God about that or I won't be at peace," she said. "The verdict makes it better."

Shirley Wesley King, adopted by the Wesleys after Cynthia died in the explosion, said the verdict restored her faith in the judicial system.

"My parents, when they were living, always said God would bring justice," Mrs. King said. "I can tell you though, it's been a long time for justice to come."

Estelle Boyd, 73, a former member of Sixteenth Street Church, was in the courtroom and cried at the jury verdict. She was glad to see a second person brought to justice and would like to see justice for the other.

"I just hope someone will have the courage to come forward to bring the others to justice," she said.

The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a leader of the Birmingham civil rights struggle, said it was a great victory for the families. Yet after more than 30 years, "it won't ease their pain," he said.

For investigators, there was only joy.

"I'm just gratified that everybody can see that the system does work," said Rob Langford, who headed the Birmingham FBI office and reopened the investigation in 1993.

FBI Special Agent Bill Fleming, who in 1966 was handed the daunting task of solving the bombing, described the investigation with tears in his eyes Tuesday. "It was a case without fingerprints, eyewitnesses and evidence," he said. "You could only hope the jury would hear the hate in this man's voice."

"We succeeded by getting it here but if we hadn't succeeded here, I would have been sad," Fleming said. "Now I feel I have been given a special gift."

News staff writers Vickii Howell and Chris Scribner contributed to this story.