Virgil Lamar Ware (Dec. 6, 1949 – Sept. 15, 1963) was an eighth-grader, an A student and a football player who dreamed of becoming a lawyer on the day he was gunned down in the aftermath of the Birmingham church bombing.
Virgil Lamar Ware and his brother James were returning home from a shopping trip, unaware that the bombing had occurred when they encountered Larry Joe Sims and Michael Lee Farley. Sims and Farley, both 16, were riding along on their motorcycle coming from a segregationist rally. Farley gave Sims his handgun to admire. When the white teenagers saw the Ware brothers, Farley told Sims to shoot, to “scare them.” Sims shot Virgil twice, once in the cheek and once in the chest. The 13-year-old Ware died on the Docena-Sandusky Road on the outskirts of Birmingham.
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