Dave's Cemetery Photo Collection Birmingham Bombing Victims In 1963, as racial tensions rose across America and various actions were taken to bring civil rights issues to a head, one of the famous flashpoint events occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. A bomb was placed at the 16th street Baptist church, a black church, and it exploded in the early hours of September 15, 1963. The only victims were 4 young girls, one 11 and three 14 year olds. Their deaths became symbols of America's racial struggle. They were buried in Greenwood cemetery, near Birmingham airport, and we documented their gravesites for the find-a-grave website. Dave Home Page Dave Cemetery Main Page US Presidents US Money Artists Automakers Gangsters Industrialists See my grave collection and read my personal stories about my visits. For more detailed info about the graves, click the tombstone icon to link to www.findagrave.com.

Birmingham Bombing Victims Note that Denise McNair is "buried elsewhere".

Carole Robertson

Cynthia Wesley

Addie May Collins The grave of Addie May Collins is very near the grave of Cynthia Wesley. With the others are in a family plot, her grave is by itself. Also, hers is the only one that makes any mention of being a "civil rights martyr".

Greenwood Cemetery Location Tiny Greenwood cemetery is directly adjacent to Birmingham airport. It is unmarked, rather run down, and shares its entry road with the rental car service area of the airport. While walking about the cemetery, there was constant noise from the jet noise, but also from the running engines, auto vacuums, etc from the service center. The much larger and better kept Forest Hills cemetery is completely adjacent to Greenwood, but its grand and flagpole draped entrance is 180 degrees away from the airport, near the freeway. It took us quite some time to find this small unmarked field, which we twice mistook for a small, unmarked "overflow" area of Forest Hills, but finally realized was, in fact, Evergreen. The historical marker shown above (from the cemetery side) is actually placed in an obscure corner and from the street is half obscured by the cemetery fence.

Original Web Upload November 2001 Last Update: May 15, 2005