As the world watches the atrocities and heartbreak play out, there appears no end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet, sadly, at home, we are duty-bound to look back and pay tribute to the Americans who lost their lives in the domestic terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, Okla., 27 years ago.
April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh and his accomplice Terry Nichols carried out their diabolical terrorist plan by using a truck filled with explosives to destroy the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The heinous act of violence triggered an inferno that killed 19 children, eight federal law enforcement agents, 51 federal employees, 80 other individuals, and injured 650 others visiting the building that fateful morning.
The Nation was traumatized by the deadly terror attack. Preliminary reports that Middle Eastern terrorists were responsible for the carnage soon gave way to a shocking truth. Americans prepared to believe that such a senseless act of violence was the work of foreign terrorists were outraged when the evidence led to Persian Gulf veterans and homegrown terrorists, McVeigh and Nichols, a truth that discombobulated the American psyche. Moreover, the realization that the murderous deed was the work of a clean-cut, young, American boy, who did not appear to be a fanatic, or could fathom the dreadful act, made it difficult for Americans to grapple with the truth.
However, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) warning about the possibility of domestic attacks carried out by homegrown militants against the homeland was nothing new. SPLC’s cautioning of horrendous acts of a continuing threat is distressingly similar and suggests a correlation between McVeigh’s extremism and the insurrection on Capitol Hill January 6, 2021. The plethora of warnings that domestic extremism is a clear and present danger continues.
When arrested, McVeigh was wearing a T-shirt with this quote printed on the back: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
For committing the deadliest domestic attack in U.S. history, a lethal injection killed McVeigh June 11, 2001. He was the first person in 38 years to be put to death by the federal government. For his part in the dastardly deed, coconspirator Terry Nichols is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Fifteen years after the bombing, Debi Burkett Moore, whose brother was an employee of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and who died in the attack, said about the bombing, “Time heals nothing. It makes it a little more bearable, but it heals nothing.” Again and again, people impacted by violent acts repeat the sentiment.
Anthony Stanford, who was named the 2014 Outstanding African American of the Year by the Aurora African American Heritage Advisory Board, is an opinion correspondent and author of the book, “Homophobia in the Black Church: How Faith, Politics and Fear Divide the Black Community.”