Klan Expert Offers Insight into 1963 Church Bombing Trial

As the eyes of the nation turn to the trial of accused bomber Bobby Frank Cherry, Ku Klux Klan expert Glenn Feldman, Ph.D., at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will be available to provide analysis on the Blanton trial as well as racial, political, economic and social background on Birmingham and Alabama.

Posted on May 7, 2002 at 2:20 p.m.

WHAT:

  

On May 6, the trial of the former Ku Klux Klan member charged in the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls began in Birmingham. As the eyes of the nation turn to the trial of accused bomber Bobby Frank Cherry, Ku Klux Klan expert Glenn Feldman, Ph.D., at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will be available to provide analysis on the Blanton trial as well as racial, political, economic and social background on Birmingham and Alabama.

WHO:

  

Glenn Feldman, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the UAB Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR). He is familiar with the Klan history in Alabama and is the author of the 1999 book, Politics, Society, and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949.

Feldman is prepared to:

  • Discuss the possible impact of Cherry’s trial;

  • Give a historical summary of the bombing as a galvanizing event for the modern civil rights movement;

  • Discuss why it has taken 37 years to try Cherry for the crime;

  • Outline why opposition to such groups as the Klan often fell short of full-throated adversity to the group’s fundamental goals and, instead, was driven by a desire to avoid federal intrusion on race relations or to avoid bad publicity for a state that wanted desperately to attract outside investment and commerce.