Virgil Lamar Ware (December 6, 1949 – September 15, 1963) was an African American eighth-grader shot to death after the Birmingham church bombing.
[2][3][4] On September 15, 1963, Larry Joe Sims and Michael Lee Farley, age 16, had planned to attend a white supremacist rally and motorcade from the suburb of Midfield to the downtown of Birmingham.
[1][2][3][5] An all-white jury convicted them of second-degree manslaughter, sentenced to seven months of jail, and had their cases suspended by the judge and changed to two years’ probation.
[1][2] Ware was buried in an unmarked grave on the side of the road until May 6, 2004, when he was moved to a burial place with a bronze marker thanks to the donations of the community.
[2] Ware's name is among those inscribed on a memorial in Birmingham dedicated in November 1989 to those killed during the civil rights movement.