April 18, 2001
Page B5
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Trial of ex-Klansman Begins 38 Years After Deadly Church Bombing
B y JAY REEVES
T he As«x.iArED.f Ribs
BIRM IN G H A M , Ala. (A P) — A
ju ry pool three tim es larger than nor­
mal was sum m oned M onday for the
trial o f a form er Ku K lux K lansm an
accused in one o f the m ost notorious
crim es o f the civil rights era: a 1963
church bom bing that killed fourblack
girls.
Thom as Blanton Jr., 62, entered
the courthouse w ithout com m ent.
“H e’s nervous ... scared, as any
human being w ould be under the
scrutiny h e’s received,” defense at­
torney John R obbins said.
Ifconvicted, Blanton could get life
in prison. A bout 100 prospective ju ­
rors w ere called. Jury selection is
expected to extend into next week.
C ircuit Judge Jam es G arrett told
the prospective ju ro rs that the jury
will be sequestered for the trial, which
is expected to last at least tw o weeks,
and that the jurors will be anony­
m ous, identified in court only by
number.
rh e explosion at the Sixteenth
Street B aptist C hurch on Sept. 15,
1963, killed D enise M cN air, 11, and
th re e 1 4 -y ea r-o ld s: A d d ie M ae
C ollins, C ynthia W esley and Carole
Robertson. T he bom bing galvanized
the civil rights m ovem ent.
B lan to n is o n e o f fo u r m en sus-
pected o f p la n tin g the d y n am ite.
O nly one — R o b e rt C h a m b liss —
has been tried. H e w as c o n v icted o f
m urder in 1977 an d d ied in prison.
A n o th er su sp e ct, H erm an Cash,
died in 1994 w ithout being charged.
And last week, th eju d g e indefinitely
postponed the trial o f Bobby Frank
Cherry for tests on w hether the 71-
year-old is m entally com petent.
In a statem ent, the Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church congregation said the
trial w ould not produce healing and
suggested the case w ould have gone
to court long ago had four w hite girls
been killed.
Thomas Blanton Jr.
“ W hile a 38-y eard elay is not a real
source o f elation or encouragem ent,
w e do believe that it is never too late
to do w hat is rig h t,” the congregation
said.
At the tim e o f bom bing, blacks
w ere integrating B irm ingham ’s all-
w hite schools and the church was a
gathering site for protest marches.
The FBI concluded w ithin two
years that the bom bing was the work
o f the four m en, but closed the case
in 1968 w ithout filing charges.
T he case w as reopened by state
prosecutors in the 1970s, resulting in
C h am b liss’ conviction. Blanton and
C herry w ere indicted last M ay after
black m inisters asked the FBI to take
another look.
In recent years, oth er civil n g h ts-
era m urder cases have also been re­
vived. In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith
was convicted o f assassinating civil
rights leader M edgar Evers in M is­
sissippi in 1963.
In 1998, former Kian imperial w iz­
ard Sam Bowers was convicted in the
1966 firebom b-killing o f an N A A C P
leader in H attiesburg, M iss. In 1999,
three men w ere convicted in M issis­
sippi o f the 1970 killing o f a black
sharecropper.
American Military Crew Discuss Their Spy Plane Ordeal
(A P) - In the m om ents after the
A m erican spy plane w as bum ped by
a Chinese fighter, crew m em bers
feared they w ould have to bail out
w ith parachutes or crash land in the
South China Sea. M any w ere certain
they w ould die.
The fighter pilot buzzed the Am eri­
can EP-3E several tim es before clip­
ping the turboprop’s No. 1 propeller,
knocking it out o f operation and
knocking o ff the p lan e’s nose cone.
"A fter his first tw o runs at us, it got
kind o f surreal, like slow m otion,” Lt.
Patrick H oneck told The N ew Y ork
T im es in M ond ay’s editions. H e re­
called that the C hinese pilot saluted
on his first pass, and “m outhed som e­
thing to us” on the second.
O n the third approach, the C hi­
nese fighter collided w ith the A m eri­
can plane, causing it to plum m et from
an altitude o f 22,500 feet. The fighter
broke in h a lf and crashed into the sea,
presum ably kill ing the pilot.
”T he first thing I thought o f was,
‘O h , m y G o d ,” ’ s a id A v ia tio n
M a c h in is t’s M ate S eco n d C lass
W endy W estbrook, the navigator.
“A ll I could see w as blue w ater.”
A fter their landing on C h in a’s
H ainan island — w here they were
detained for 11 days — they were
subjected to hours o f interrogation.
To pass the tim e, they played cards,
acted out skits and even taught a
guard the w ords to the song “ H otel
California.”
Sunday was their first fu 11 day back
hom e at the W hidbey Island N aval
A ir Station in W ashington, and sev­
eral crew m em bers gave their fullest
account yet o f their experiences after
the aerial collision on A pril 1.
A fter the collision, there w as b ed ­
lam in the plane. ” 1 d id n ’t think we
w ere going to m ake it.... I said another
prayer at that tim e, ju st in case I didn ’ t
get it right the first tim e,” Lt. j.g.
Jeffrey V ignery told T he W ashing­
ton Post. H e said that w hen m ission
com m ander Lt. Shane Osborn ordered
the 24 crew m em bers to put on p ara­
chutes and prepare to bail out, he
thought that “obviously som e o f us
w ou ld n ’t have tim e to bail out.”
A s the plane leveled out, O sborn
canceled the bailout o rder and told
the crew to prepare for an em ergency
ditching at sea. But O sborn regained
enough control o f the plane that
H oneck studied m aps to see w here
they m ight land. T he p lan e’s base at
O kinaw a, Japan, w as too far aw ay, as
was the Philippines.
They chose H ainan island even
w ithout perm ission from the Chinese
to land. A s they headed for the
island, the crew began destroying
sensitive equipm ent. C rew m em bers
declined to discuss w hat they did or
w hether they com pleted the tasks.
A fter they landed, O sborn said, a
sm all group o f arm ed Chinese m ili­
tary, including an interpreter, ap ­
proached.
”H e told us not to m ove and d o n ’t
do anything,” O sborn told the Times.
“ I asked i f I could use a phone to call
the U.S. am bassador to let him know
w e w ere safe on deck, but he said they
had already taken care o f that.
T hen they told us to get o ff the
plane and they w ere pretty adam ant
Crew m em bers are w elcom ed hom e to W hidbey Island. Wash.
about it. W e dropped a ladder, and I
got o ff first.”
"It w asn ’t a tim e to m ake a stand.
W ew ere unarm ed.T hey’re armed. So
they have the advantage,” O sborn
said Sunday on A B C -T V ’s “This
W eek.” The Am ericans w ere taken to
a barracks. ”T h eir best barracks,”
O sborn said. “B ut by A m erican stan­
dards, they w ere poor. Lots and lots
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learned more in a few weeks than I
learned in a few years at her previous
school,” explained Chasity Madrid.
The strength o f the school’s pro­
gram is their intensive and accelerated
one-on-one education. At Judon, the
school focuses on a breadth o f sub­
jects: math, English, literature, social
studies, science, French, G ED prepa­
ration and counseling for positive self­
change - offering a more holistic ap­
proach to working with the child. Teach­
ers at Judon also follow the cognitive
development methods o f one o f the
twentieth century’s most influential
theorists, Jean Piaget.
Judon Line A cadem y II was nam ed
after a M ississippi school that was
formed to educate African American
children. During the 1960’s, these black
students had to be educated well
enough to pass the required academic
tests that would allow them to enter the
integrated school system.
M any o f the kids were poor and
disadvantaged. D espite that, their
teachers held the belief that all children
could leam and insisted on it. “Still
today, w e are witnessing institutional­
ized racism in schools. Like in the Old
South, it was about color.
N ow it’s about color, creed, eco­
nomics, class. clothing, psychological
profiles and a multitude oflabels placed
on them,” explained Dr. Flora Holden.
As a tribute to the founders o f the
Mississippi school, who were the aunts
o f Dr. Holden, the Judon Line A cad­
emy in Portland was named in memory
ofthem. Linder her direction, she se n es
as the principal teacher by taking a no-
nonsense approach tem pered with
counseling, sensitivity and under­
standing.
Judon Line Academy II opened early
this year under the sponsorship o f Give
Us This Day, a nonprofit organization
that has placed foster children in good
homes for over 25 years. The school
consists o f seven students and manned
by a volunteer staff o f two teachers and
an administrator. Both programs are
founded on the idea ofan extended family
concept where children come into a tam-
ily as life long participants. A bond is
established and many children stay con­
nected with the families even after they
ha ve left the program. To keep the school
operational. Mary Holden is currently
writing grant proposals and asking for
donations. She wants to progressively
expand enrollment up to 25 kids. “I am
doing my small part to help.
The Judon Line Academy and Give
Us This Day will go on trying to find
solutions to ensure that its children get
the best society has to offer where edu­
cation and citizenship are concerned."
explainedHolden.
McVeigh Execution
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o f bugs and m osquitoes. But it was
livable.” A ftertw o nights, they were
m oved to a nearby base lodge. A side
from meals, they were segregated from
other residents. Interrogations were
conducted at various tim es, often in
the m iddle o f the night and som e­
tim es lasting as long as five hours.
The food vaned. "It w as C hinese
food, but definitely not A m erican­
ized,” V ignery said. They were served
fish heads "until they realized we
w eren ’t into fish heads.” •
Vignery said the crew played cards
and read a few English-language C hi­
nese new spapers they w ere given.
T hey learned little about the tense
diplomatic standoff surrounding their
detention. For am usem ent, V ignery
and H oneck said they w rote skits.
"They got quite a few laughs," Honeck
said. “ W e did a ‘P eople’s C o u rt’
spoof, new s like on ‘Saturday N ight
L iv e’ and one o f ‘ rh e Crocodile
H unter.'” He said guards who under­
stood English laughed at the skits.
O ne guard, H oneck said, “w anted
to know the lyrics to an A m erican
song he heard, ‘H otel C alifornia,’ by
the E agles.”
Horace Simpson
A. D. Williams
282 2920
S tory C ontini ed from front P age
exactly,” Lifton said. “But one might
suspect that he would try to structure his
martyrdom in some way by creating the
narrative o f how he dies.”
For most o f the next few weeks,
McVeigh will be m his usual cell. He has
a television and can exercise indoors or in
a caged, outdoor area. Family members,
a spiritual adviser or his lawyers can visit.
Two to three days before his execu­
tion, McVeigh will beplaced in a Bureau
o f Prisons vehicle under heavy guard
and driven about 500 yards from death
row to die death house, a windowless,
two-story brick building surrounded by
a fence topped with barbed w ir e
Hie trans fer wi ll be done in such a way
that no other inmates will catch a gl impse
ofMcVeigh. His short walk from the van
into the death house will be the last time
he sees the outdoors He will be allowed
to have a spiritual adviser walk with him
to the death house, but that seems un­
likely. A nun from the Sisters o f Provi­
dence who ministers to federal death row
inmates said McVeigh has declined any
spiritual counseling And other inmates
who have tned to speak to him about
religion have been rebuffed.
"Often Tim will just change the sub­
ject when (an inmate) brings up some­
thing like that” said Sister Rita Clare
G erardot“We don’t understand the way
he thinks. It’s like he’s justified.”
Prison protocol says that when
McVeigh enters the death house, he can
bring only these items: a Bible, one reli­
gious item (a rosary, for example), five
unframed personal photographs, one
magazine, one paperback and a newspa­
per. Hewillbe kept ina9-by-l4-foot cell,
with a small bed built into the tan wall, a
wall-mounted metal table and a toilet. On
one wall are windows that look into a
guards’ office. McVeigh will be moni­
tored around the clock. Personal calls
from the death house will be suspended
24 hours before the execution. McVeigh
will be able to speak only with his attor­
neys. On May 16, he will change into
prison-issue white bnefs, khaki trousers,
a white T-shirt, socks and slip-on shoes.
A ft era slow march to the death chamber,
McVeigh will walk across the white and
gray tile floor.pastthe green-tile walls and
the clock that will register his time of
death. He will be strapped to a T-shaped
gurney and given a lethal injection. About
seven minutes later, the man responsible
tor the deadl lest ac t of terrorism on Amen -
can soil will take his final breath.
i