View source for Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing

{{Short description|1958 terrorist attack in the United States}}
{{Use American English|date = January 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = January 2020}}
{{Infobox terrorist attack
|title = Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing
|location = [[Atlanta, Georgia]]
|target = Hebrew Benevolent Congregation ([[Reform Judaism|Reform Jewish]] temple)
|date = October 12, 1958
|type = [[Dynamite]] [[bombing]]
|fatalities = 0
|injuries = 0
|perps = Unknown
|motive = apparently [[anti-Semitism]]; group involved was likely [[white supremacy|white supremacist]]
}}
{{CRM in Georgia}}

The '''Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing''' occurred on October 12, 1958, in [[Atlanta, Georgia]]. The [[The Temple (Atlanta)|Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple]], on [[Peachtree Street]], housed a [[Reform Judaism|Reform Jewish]] congregation. The building was damaged extensively by the dynamite-fueled explosion, although no one was injured. Five suspects were arrested almost immediately after the bombing. One of them, George Bright, was tried twice. His first trial ended with a hung jury and his second with an acquittal. As a result of Bright's acquittal, the other suspects were not tried, and no one was ever convicted of the bombing.

==Background==
{{quote box|quote=It is the harvest of defiance of courts and the encouragement of citizens to defy law on the part of many southern politicians.  It is not possible to preach lawlessness and restrict it.  To be sure, none said go bomb a Jewish temple or a school.  But, let it be understood that when leadership in high places in any degree fails to support constituted authority, it opens the gates to all those who wish to take the law into their hands.<ref name=hunt/>| bgcolor = Cornsilk|width=30%|align=left|title=From [[Ralph McGill]]'s ''[[Atlanta Constitution]]'' Pulitzer prize winning editorial on the bombing|source= —Ralph McGill&mdash;"[[s:A Church, A School|A Church, A School ...]]" (October 13, 1958)}}

The day after the bombing, ''[[Atlanta Constitution]]'' editor and outspoken voice of moderation on civil rights issues [[Ralph McGill]] tied the bombing to the ongoing [[civil rights movement]] in a [[Pulitzer prize]]-winning<ref name=review/><ref>
*{{cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1959|title=The Pulitzer Prizes: 1959 Winners|publisher=pulitzer.org|access-date=March 10, 2014}}
*{{cite book|author=Stephen L. Vaughn|title=Encyclopedia of American Journalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6ySAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|date=11 December 2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-88020-0|page=39}}</ref> editorial, "[[s:A Church, A School|A Church, A School...]]" Jacob Rothschild, the temple's [[rabbi]] since 1946,<ref name=dies>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2gkrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3pkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3101%2C910139|title=Rabbi Dies|work=Reading Eagle|date=January 2, 1974}}</ref> was a highly visible and early<ref name=dies/> advocate of civil rights and integration,<ref name=review>{{cite news|url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/lnacui2api/api/version1/getDocCui?lni=3SD9-CSB0-009T-X3G4&csi=8379&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true|title=The Sleuth Behind;'The Temple Bombing';Author drawn to unraveling mystery of '58 Temple blast that shook Atlanta|work=The Atlanta Journal and Constitution|date=May 29, 1996|author=Jim Auchmutey|page=1B}}{{subscription required}}</ref> supporter of the [[United States Supreme Court]]'s decision ending school segregation in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'',<ref name=dies/> and friend of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] In 1957, he helped author the [[Ministers' Manifesto]], a statement signed by 80 clergy members in Atlanta that offered several key tenets that they proposed should shape the discussion over school integration, which included communication between white and African American leaders.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hatfield |first=Edward A. |date=August 12, 2020 |orig-date=October 12, 2007 |title=Ministers' Manifesto |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/ministers-manifesto/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103114003/https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/ministers-manifesto/ |archive-date=November 3, 2021 |access-date=June 29, 2022 |website=[[New Georgia Encyclopedia]]}}</ref>

Rothschild not only took an activist role in the struggle for racial equality, but, unlike some other pro-integration southern rabbis, was supported in his stance by a significant number of his congregants.<ref name=quiet>{{cite journal|title=Review of The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, 1880s to 1990s. by Mark K. Bauman; Berkley Kalin; Struggles in the Promised Land: Toward a History of Black-Jewish Relations in the United States. by Jack Salzman; Cornel West|author=Frederick M. Binder|pages=312–4|journal=The Journal of American History|volume=86|number=1|date=June 1999|jstor=2567542|quote=Of the twelve rabbis whose stories are told, James A. Wax in Memphis, Tennessee, Charles Mantinband in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Perry Nussbaum in Jackson, Mississippi, and Jacob Rothschild in Atlanta, Georgia, forsook the cautious approach and openly and effectively engaged in the struggle for black civil rights. ...  ... the 1958 dynamiting of the temple in Atlanta resulted in wide support from both within and without the Jewish community, which for the temple's members 'finally exorcized the lingering trauma engendered more than forty years before by the trial and lynching of [[Leo Frank]]'|doi=10.2307/2567542}}{{subscription required}}</ref>   The bombing ripped the delicate social fabric of Atlanta, which called itself the "city too busy to hate,"<ref name=busy>{{cite journal|title=The Image of "A City Too Busy to Hate": Atlanta in the 1960s|author=Virginia H. Hein|pages=205–221|journal=Phylon|volume=33|number=3|year=1972|jstor=273521|doi=10.2307/273521}}{{subscription required}}</ref> although it also elicited widespread support for Rothschild and the Temple from Jewish and non-Jewish Atlantans alike.<ref name=quiet/>  For instance, by early November 1958, the Temple had received over $12,000 in donations to its rebuilding fund.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7oFPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_gQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2837%2C5686470|title=Atlanta's Fox Theater Evacuated After Bomb Threat is Received|work=Ocala Star-Banner|date=November 3, 1958}}</ref>

==Explosion==
[[File:Bright George M.-HQ-1-7 1.png|thumb|250px|Memo (October 13, 1958) from [[J. Edgar Hoover]] concerning FBI input into [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s pending response to the bombing]]
The explosion occurred just after 3:30 AM Eastern Standard Time on October 12, 1958.<ref name=ripped>{{cite news|title=Atlanta Synagogue Damaged by Blast; F.B.I. Aids Inquiry|work=[[The New York Times]]|author=Claude Sitton|author-link=Claude Sitton|date=October 13, 1958|page=1|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/10/13/archives/atlanta-synagogue-damaged-by-blast-fbi-aids-inquiry-atlanta-temple.html}}</ref> Those who heard the blast reported a "loud explosion" to police and newspapers. A [[United Press International]] (UPI) staff member had received a call earlier that night warning that a bombing would occur but did not take the call seriously.  At about 3:50 AM, shortly after the bombing, UPI staff received a call from "General Gordon of the Confederate Underground" who said "We have just blown up the temple. This is the last empty building I'll blow up in Atlanta."<ref name=ripped/> The explosion caused damage to the building estimated at between $100,000<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ShUhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-pkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5523%2C1906047|title=Atlanta Temple Celebrates Date of Dynamiting|work=The Tuscaloosa News|date=October 13, 1959}}</ref> and $200,000 (approximately ${{Inflation|index=USD|value=100,000|start_year=1958|fmt=C}} adjusted for inflation).<ref name=bail/>

By October 13, over 75 policemen and a number of [[Georgia Bureau of Investigation]] agents were working on the case.<ref name=hunt/>  They were joined by [[FBI]] agents, involved by direct order of President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Clive Webb|title=Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjRHhJJwiMEC&pg=PA62|date=15 March 2011|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4009-8|page=62}}</ref> US army experts had by then already determined that [[dynamite]] was the explosive agent used.<ref name=hunt>{{cite news|title=Temple Bombing Stirs Wide Hunt|author=Claude Sitton|work=[[The New York Times]]|page=46|date=October 14, 1958|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/10/14/archives/temple-bombing-stirs-wide-hunt-city-state-and-fbi-press-inquiry-in.html}}</ref>

==Investigation, arrests, and indictments==
{{quote box|quote=The big blast is all set for either next Sunday or Saturday, if there is a local ordinance forbidding picketing, etc. on Sunday.  We will know tomorrow and will keep you informed.  But we want to have it Sunday, if possible, because the boys are coming down from New York for the work here &mdash; no guts in the local citizens &mdash; and we want to have Saturday to pass out thousands of handbills and put up posters to sort of steam things up for the big blow itself.<ref>{{cite book|author=Herman Obermayer|title=American Nazi Party in Arlington, Virginia 1958 - 1984|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=thQuAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA174|date=31 January 2012|publisher=Herman J. Obermayer|isbn=978-0-615-73137-7|page=174}}</ref>|source= —George Lincoln Rockwell to Wallace Allen, July 1958<ref name=indicted/>| bgcolor = Cornsilk|width=30%|align=left|title=From [[George Lincoln Rockwell]]'s "big blast" letter to Wallace Allen}}

By October 13, five suspects were in custody.<ref name=hunt/>  One of them, Kenneth Chester Griffin, confessed almost immediately.<ref name=mckay>{{cite book|author=John McKay|title=It Happened in Atlanta: Remarkable Events That Shaped History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=15DbTPvCWs0C&pg=PA113|year=2011|publisher=Globe Pequot Press|isbn=978-0-7627-6439-6|page=113ff}}</ref>  He accused another one of the men arrested, George Bright, of masterminding the crime and of building the bomb.<ref name=mckay/>  Griffin also told Atlanta detectives that the dynamite had been supplied by [[J. B. Stoner]], founder and chairman of the [[National States Rights Party]] (NSRP), who, according to Griffin, left Atlanta before the explosion in order to establish an [[alibi]].<ref name=mckay/>

By October 16, the [[Anti-Defamation League]] of [[B'nai B'rith]] (ADL) had released a report publicly linking the suspects to the NSRP.<ref name=suspects>{{cite news|title=Bombing Suspects Tied to 'Hate' Unit: B'nai B'rith League Links 5 Held in Atlanta Inquiry to 'States Rights' Party|page=23|date=October 16, 1958}}</ref>  All five were also members of the [[Knights of the White Camelia]].<ref name=spaces>{{cite journal|author=Clive Webb|url=http://www.southernspaces.org/2009/counterblast-how-atlanta-temple-bombing-strengthened-civil-rights-cause|title=Counterblast: How the Atlanta Temple Bombing Strengthened the Civil Rights Cause|journal=Southern Spaces|date=June 2009|access-date=March 8, 2014}}</ref>  Police had by then searched nineteen Atlanta-area houses associated with the suspects and had uncovered large caches of anti-Semitic propaganda, some of which was attributed to the [[Christian Anti-Jewish Party]].<ref name=expert>{{cite news|title=Atlanta Seeking Dynamite Expert|page=23|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 17, 1958}}</ref>

On October 17, one of the five suspects, Luther King Corley, was released and the other four, Wallace Allen, Bright, Griffin, and Robert A. Bolling, had been indicted by a Georgia state [[grand jury]] on a [[Capital punishment|capital]] charge of bombing The Temple.<ref name=indicted>{{cite news|title=Five Indicted in Bombing of Atlanta Jewish Temple|page=1|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 18, 1958}}</ref>  The grand jury also indicted a fifth suspect, Richard Bolling (Robert's brother), who was being sought by police.<ref name=indicted/>

''The New York Times'' reported on October 17 that [[American Nazi Party]] founder [[George Lincoln Rockwell]] had written to Allen in July 1958 and mentioned a "big blast."<ref name=indicted/>  Rockwell told reporters that he had been referring to "a picketing demonstration and not to a bombing."<ref name=indicted/>  Material found during the investigation also linked future NSRP vice-presidential candidate and former naval officer [[John G. Crommelin]] with the suspects.<ref name=rabble>{{cite book|author=Clive Webb|title=Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dDQ6ZWRTzYC&pg=PA127|date=15 August 2011|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4229-0|page=127}}</ref>  Crommelin went on to organize a legal defense fund for the accused bombers.<ref name=rabble/>

Richard Bowling was arrested by Atlanta police on October 18<ref name=central>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CQgaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nSMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4711%2C2114844|title=Police Apprehend Alleged 'Central Figure' in Atlanta Bombing Episode|work=The Times-News|date=October 18, 1958}}</ref> and, by October 22, all five suspects had been denied bail.<ref name=bail>{{cite news|title=Bail is Denied Five in Atlanta Bombing|date=October 23, 1958|page=19|work=New York Times}}</ref>

==George Bright's trials==

===First trial===
The first suspect to be tried, George Bright, initially appeared before the court on December 1, 1958<ref name=first>{{cite news|title=First Trial Opens in Atlanta Blast|date=December 2, 1958|work=[[The New York Times]]|page=41}}</ref> represented by, among others, [[James R. Venable]], [[Imperial Wizard]] of the [[National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/lnacui2api/api/version1/getDocCui?lni=3SJC-H290-000W-K0HS&csi=8379&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true|title=Former Klan leader Venable, 91, dies Headed activities in Stone Mountain|work=The Atlanta Journal and Constitution|date=January 19, 1993|author=Tom Bennett|page=C3}}{{subscription required}}</ref>  Bright's attorneys filed a motion arguing that the law Bright had been charged under, which allowed for the death penalty in cases of bombings of dwellings, did not include "houses of worship."<ref name=first/>  This argument was dismissed by the judge, who ordered Bright bound over for trial in [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]] Superior Court.<ref name=first/>

Bright's trial began on December 2 with the prosecutor promising to show that Bright had been present when The Temple was bombed.<ref name=opens>{{cite news|title=Atlanta Opens Case in Temple Bombing|date=December 3, 1958|page=31|work=New York Times}}</ref>  He also said that Bright had gone to a meeting in May 1958 at which Temple rabbi Jacob Rothschild had been invited to speak and that, in reference to this meeting, had told his neighbors that "we should go out there and string the rabbi up."<ref name=opens/>

On December 3, the state of Georgia produced a note that Bright (admittedly) had written to Rothschild after the May meeting informing him that "You are going to experience the most terrifying thing in your life."<ref>{{cite news|title=Note Held a Link to Temple Blast|date=December 4, 1958|page=29|work=New York Times}}</ref>  On December 4, a witness testified that Bright had been friendly with noted segregationist [[John Kasper]] and had regularly attended meetings of the [[National States Rights Party]].<ref name=kasper>{{cite news|title=Bombing Suspect Linked to Kasper|date=December 5, 1958|page=20|work=New York Times}}</ref>

Bright's case was handed over to the jury on December 6 after he made a statement protesting his innocence and denying that he was an anti-Semite.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bombing Charge Goes to the Jury|page=54|work=New York Times}}</ref>  On December 9 ''The New York Times'' reported that the jury was deadlocked 9 to 3, but did not report which way the jurors were split; the trial judge ordered them to continue their deliberations.<ref name=deadlocked>{{cite news|title=Jury Deadlocked in Bombing Trial|date=December 9, 1958|page=49|work=New York Times}}</ref>  On December 10, the judge declared a mistrial as the jurors remained "hopelessly deadlocked."<ref name=mistrial>{{cite news|title=Mistrial Called in Bombing Case|date=December 11, 1958|page=7|work=[[The New York Times]]|author=Claude Sitton}}</ref>  The jury foreman told reporters that the panel had been split with 9 in favor of convicting Bright and 3 in favor of acquittal.<ref name=mistrial/>  One of the jurors in favor of acquittal told reporters that "You can't send a man to the penitentiary for life just because he's a Jew-hater."<ref name=mistrial/>

===Second trial===
George Bright's second trial began on January 12, 1959, with the state of Georgia waiving the possibility of asking for the death penalty.<ref name=second>{{cite news|title=Bomb Trial Starts|date=January 13, 1959|work=[[The New York Times]]|page=14}}</ref>  The trial ended on January 22, 1959, with George Bright again testifying to his innocence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Accused Testifies in Atlanta Bombing|page=12|date=January 23, 1959|work=New York Times}}</ref>  The jury deliberated for two hours and eight minutes before returning a verdict of "not guilty."<ref name=freed>{{cite news|title=Engineer Freed in Temple Blast|date=January 24, 1959|page=17|work=New York Times}}</ref>  Immediately after the trial ended, the presiding judge jailed Bright's lawyer, Reuben Garland, for [[contempt of court]].<ref name=garland>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2MpLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cjEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3170%2C2492668|title=Atlanta Lawyer Reuben Garland Remains in Jail|date=January 26, 1959|work=Rome News-Tribune}}</ref>  Garland was freed after five days pending appeal to the [[Georgia Court of Appeals]], which, in June 1959, overturned Garland's contempt sentence.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YekuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ajEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2659%2C6140135|work=Rome News-Tribune|date=June 23, 1959|title=Appeals Court Reverses Judge in Garland Case}}</ref>

In November, 1959, George Bright sued Atlanta chief of police Herbert T. Jenkins for [[false arrest]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AH0oAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EcoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4772%2C3235725|title=Files Suit for False Arrest|work=Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal|date=November 19, 1959}}</ref>

==The other defendants==
Georgia [[solicitor general]] Paul Webb announced during Bright's trial that his prosecution of the remaining defendants would be guided by its result.<ref name=garland/>  After Bright's acquittal, Webb was unsure whether his office would proceed with the prosecution of Allen, Griffin, and Richard Bolling, the three defendants remaining under indictment.<ref name=garland/>  The prosecutor's office eventually dropped the charges against the remaining defendants<ref name=mckay/> and they were never convicted of any crime in connection with the bombing.<ref name=spaces/>

==Historiography and legacy==
About three weeks after the bombing, 311 clergy members published a follow-up to the Ministers' Manifesto entitled "'Out of Conviction': A Second Statement on the South's Racial Crisis", which reiterated the tenets of the first manifesto and urged the governor of Georgia to form a citizens' committee to help with Atlanta's eventual school integration.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Harold H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bo9y9O1DwuQC |title=Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1940s–1970s |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]] |year=2011 |page=289 |isbn=978-0-8203-3907-8 |edition=Paperback |volume=III |location=Athens, Georgia}}</ref>

In 1996, Georgia author [[Melissa Fay Greene]] published an account of the incident and its aftermath titled ''The Temple Bombing''.<ref name=review/>  She managed to interview George Bright for her book, although three of the other suspects had died before she could talk to them and the fourth hung up on her on learning that she was Jewish.<ref name=review/>  Greene said "I wanted a deathbed confession," but she ended up being convinced of Bright's innocence by his denials of his involvement.<ref name=review/>

The bombing figures prominently in the play and adaptations of ''[[Driving Miss Daisy]]''.

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
*Greene, Melissa Faye, ''The Temple Bombing'', {{ISBN|0-449-90809-7}} (1996).
*Rosenberg, Adolph, "[http://israelite.galileo.usg.edu/israelite/view?docId=news/asi1958/asi1958-0762.xml Dynamite Bomb Damages Atlanta Temple; Shocks City, State, and Nation into Action]" ''Southern Israelite'', October 17, 1958.
*Webb, Clive. "[http://www.southernspaces.org/2009/counterblast-how-atlanta-temple-bombing-strengthened-civil-rights-cause Counterblast: How the Atlanta Temple Bombing Strengthened the Civil Rights Cause]." ''Southern Spaces'' 22 June 2009.

==External links==
* [http://crdl.usg.edu/events/temple_bombing_atlanta/ Temple Bombing (Atlanta, Ga.)], Civil Rights Digital Library.
* [https://archive.org/details/BombingOfAtlantaTemple FBI file on the Atlanta Temple Bombing] at the [[Internet Archive]]
* [https://archive.org/details/WallaceH.Allen Wallace Allen's FBI file] at the [[Internet Archive]]
* [https://archive.org/details/GeorgeM.Bright George Bright's FBI] at the [[Internet Archive]]

{{Atlanta history}}
{{Jews and Judaism in Georgia (U.S. state)}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing}}
[[Category:1958 crimes in the United States]]
[[Category:1958 in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:1958 in Judaism]]
[[Category:20th-century attacks on Jewish institutions in the United States]]
[[Category:20th century in Atlanta]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Synagogue bombings]]
[[Category:Crimes in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:History of African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Atlanta]]
[[Category:October 1958 events in the United States]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents by unknown perpetrators]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in the United States in 1958]]
[[Category:Building bombings in the United States]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1950s]]