John Cross, Jr.

John H. Cross Jr. (January 27, 1925 – November 15, 2007) was an American pastor and Civil Rights activist. He was best known as the pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist congregation in Birmingham, Alabama, at the time of the church's racially motivated bombing in 1963. The bombing, which ripped through the church and killed four young girls, became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement and propelled the problems of racial segregation in The South into the national spotlight.

16th Street Baptist Church John Cross Jr was named the new pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1962. He was serving as a pastor of a Baptist church in Richmond, Virginia at the time. Cross was asked to serve at the church because he seemed to be a good match for its congregation, who largely consisted of conservative, well educated African Americans. Cross had no real previous experience as either a civil rights activist or in the civil rights movement before arriving in Birmingham.

Cross's new city, Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the most volatile flashpoints in the South at the time. The city had earned the nickname of "Bombingham" by 1962 due to the large number of racially charged bombings during the 1950s and early 1960s. It was considered a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan, who often perpetuated random violence against the city's black population. Birmingham's notorious public safety commissioner, Eugene "Bull" Connor, was well known for turning high-powered fire hoses and attack dogs on protesters.