This silent WSB newsfilm clip from September 4, 1963 shows the bomb damage done to the Birmingham, Alabama home of African American attorney Arthur Shores. The clip begins with African American men and women outside the home, some standing on a porch, some speaking to each other, and others walking up steps to the house. White men are also seen inspecting the home and speaking to one another. Damage to the home includes torn up blinds, a hole in the yard, and a wrecked corner of the house; no one had been injured in the bombing. Shores' house had also been bombed two weeks earlier, on August 21. Shores was the only African American lawyer in Birmingham during part of the 1930s and the 1940s. He was also one of few African American lawyers to argue his own cases in court during a time when most turned their arguments over to a white attorney. In 1956 Shores had successfully argued for the admittance of Autherine Lucy as the first black student at the University of Alabama, and was one of the lead lawyers during the integration campaigns earlier in the summer. The September bombing followed the otherwise peaceful integration of public schools in Birmingham earlier that day. African Americans responded to the bombing by rioting for several hours until they were dispersed by police. One African American died in the rioting and nearly twenty others were injured. Violent segregationists in Birmingham bombed homes and businesses of civil rights leaders so frequently that the city earned the nickname "Bombingham." Another bomb on September 15 killed four young girls and injured over twenty others at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a headquarters for the movement and site of mass meetings during the spring.

Title supplied by cataloger.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for digital conversion and description of the WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection.

1 clip (about 1 min.): black-and-white, silent ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of bomb damage done to the home of African American attorney Arthur Shores in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963 September 4, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0862, 31:29/32:03, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.