John Montgomery Presents This Week's	May 5, 2001	Creep Logo by Alan Fraser
	Thomas Blanton
	The Wheels of Justice in Alabama Finally Turn

Long ago, in a land far, far away, there was racial segregation in the United States. Black and white people lived separately, went to different schools, ate at different lunch counters and sat in different parts of the bus. Separate and very unequal. It was the law of the land in the southern states and most people, black and white, lived their lives under those rules without questioning them. Anyone who did question them was likely to get an answer in the form of a visit from the Klu Klux Klan, a group of cowardly white racists who were afraid to express their beliefs openly, opting instead to burn their crosses and lynch their uppity niggras dressed in dunce-like white hoods.

That balance of power began to change in the early 1960's when the civil rights movement got a little too noisy for the KKK's comfort. They converted to a higher tech arsenal, trading in their lynching ropes for high powered rifles and bombs. On September 15, 1963, a dynamite bomb went off at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, as Sunday school was about to begin. The black church had been a meeting place for civil rights advocates who took to the streets demonstrating against the city's segregation laws and Governor George Wallace's defiance of a federal court order to integrate the schools. The bomb explosion killed four young black girls.

Justice was a bit slow in coming. You'll hear a few different explanations for the delay, depending on who you ask. Pick one or any combination thereof:

• The authorities in Birmingham didn't like uppity niggras any better than the KKK did and didn't investigate very hard.

• The FBI actually did come up with a list of four KKK suspects within weeks of the bombing and even made some tapes of their conversations, but never turned over any of their findings to the local investigators because the feds figured they were ignorant, rednecked crackers.

• J Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, didn't like uppity niggras either, and killed the investigation. During that era, J Edgar spent his days ordering investigations of Martin Luther King's sex life, then spent his nights packing fudge in his prettiest party dresses and pumps.

On the tapes, Thomas is heard bragging about the bombing to his wife and another of his bubba buds, making such moronic comments as, "They ain't gonna catch me when I bomb my next church" and “I like to go shooting, I like to go fishing, I like to go bombing.” In a quote that must have caused J Edgar's ears (among other things) to perk up, Thomas says he's all through with women: “I am going to stick to bombing churches.”

This week, nearly 38 years after the crime, Thomas was convicted of the bombing. The jury spent all of two hours deliberating. The judge gave him four life sentences, one for each of the girls killed. Thomas better hope he doesn't get reincarnated, because as soon as he's born again, he goes directly back to jail.
 
Thomas's lawyer gave the standard post-conviction spiel: The jury was too "emotional". We will appeal. Thomas is a "loudmouth" and a "segregationist," but no murderer. Christ, I hope this doesn't ruin what's left of my sorry legal career and professional integrity.

But take a good look at Thomas's picture above. To me, that doesn't look like the face of an innocent man being unfairly led away to jail for the rest of his life. No, that's the face of a smug and arrogant bigot who's spent 38 years assuring himself that the good old boy network will take care of him. It was only minutes before that picture was taken that reality finally dawned on Thomas Blanton. He realizes he's gone down for the count. There ain't gonna be no more Klan rallies. And the niggras he lives with in his new home are going to be mighty uppity.