Alabama will mark the 60th anniversary of the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church

Alabama is marking the 60th anniversary of the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church by the Ku Klux Klan, one of the most serious terror acts of the Civil Rights Movement.

On the morning of Sept. 15, 1963, dynamite planted by Ku Klux Klan members exploded at the church, killing the girls and shocking the nation. The large, prominent church was targeted because it was a center of the African American community and the site of mass meetings during the Civil Rights Movement.

The girls were gathered in a downstairs washroom to freshen up before Sunday services when the blast rocked the church. The explosion killed 11-year-old Denise McNair, and Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins, all 14. A fifth girl, Sarah Collins Rudolph, the sister of Addie Mae, was in the room and was severely injured but survived.