On September 15, 1963, a Ku Klux Klan bombing struck Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, a major civil rights organizing center where leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Bevel had mobilized marches, voter registration, and the Children’s Crusade. Dynamite planted beneath the church steps exploded as children prepared for choir, killing four girls and injuring many others. In a city already notorious for racist bombings, the attack shocked the nation, intensified outrage over white supremacist violence, and became a turning point in the civil rights era, helping build support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.