Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing

1958 terrorist attack in the United States

The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing occurred on October 12, 1958, in Atlanta, Georgia. The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple, on Peachtree Street, housed a 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.

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. editorial, "A Church, A School " Jacob Rothschild, the temple's rabbi since 1946, was a highly visible and early supporter of the United States Supreme Court's decision ending school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education,

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. The bombing ripped the delicate social fabric of Atlanta, which called itself the "city too busy to hate," although it also elicited widespread support for Rothschild and the Temple from Jewish and non Jewish Atlantans alike.

The explosion occurred just after 3:30 AM Eastern Standard Time on October 12, 1958. 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." and $200,000 (approximately $ adjusted for inflation). US army experts had by then already determined that dynamite was the explosive agent used.

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 — no guts in the local citizens — 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.|source= —George Lincoln Rockwell to Wallace Allen, July 1958 He accused another one of the men arrested, George Bright, of masterminding the crime and of building the bomb. All five were also members of the Knights of the White Camelia. 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. 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 charge of bombing The Temple. The grand jury also indicted a fifth suspect, Richard Bolling (Robert's brother), who was being sought by police. Crommelin went on to organize a legal defense fund for the accused bombers. and, by October 22, all five suspects had been denied bail.

The first suspect to be tried, George Bright, initially appeared before the court on December 1, 1958 represented by, among others, James R. Venable, Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. 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." 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." 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. 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. 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. On December 10, the judge declared a mistrial as the jurors remained "hopelessly deadlocked." The jury foreman told reporters that the panel had been split with 9 in favor of convicting Bright and 3 in favor of acquittal. The trial ended on January 22, 1959, with George Bright again testifying to his innocence. The jury deliberated for two hours and eight minutes before returning a verdict of "not guilty." Immediately after the trial ended, the presiding judge jailed Bright's lawyer, Reuben Garland, for contempt of court. Garland was freed after five days pending appeal to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which, in June 1959, overturned Garland's contempt sentence. In November, 1959, George Bright sued Atlanta chief of police Herbert T. Jenkins for false arrest.

Georgia solicitor general Paul Webb announced during Bright's trial that his prosecution of the remaining defendants would be guided by its result. In 1996, Georgia author Melissa Fay Greene published an account of the incident and its aftermath titled The Temple Bombing. 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. Greene said "I wanted a deathbed confession," but she ended up being convinced of Bright's innocence by his denials of his involvement. The bombing figures prominently in the play and adaptations of Driving Miss Daisy.