Bobby Frank Cherry was a known Alabama klansman. Proud of his bigotry, he paraded around for decades bragging about the innocent Black lives he took – especially his role in the infamous 16th St. church bombing.
Cherry attended a KKK meeting where the group plotted and planned the bombing. They even built the bomb together during the meeting!
But it gets worse.
Cherry and his accomplices were let off the hook after Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley were murdered in the bombing – there were NO consequences!
Decades later, in 2000, Cherry was finally charged with the four murders. But why did he get away with it for so long?
For years, the system protected Cherry – as it was designed to do. When known-racist FBI director J. Edgar Hoover caught wind of the case, he blocked the prosecution from further investigating the bombing. At the same time, Cherry continued committing other heinous attacks on Black activists!
Despite generations of obvious, horrific crimes, white Americans still rarely get arrested or wrapped up by the system like we so frequently do.
We must remember that the system is stacked against us, and it has never intended to protect or serve us. White supremacists have always protected each other, even when it meant covering up murder. Systemic racism has got to go!