The reverend of a church that was bombed in 1963 by ex-Ku Klux Klan members at the height of the US civil rights movement has died.

The Rev John H Cross Jr of Alabama, became the pastor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1962. Just one year later a bomb was detonated during the preparations for a youth service.

When the bomb went off, Rev Cross started to dig through the rubble to search for any survivors, despite being warned that more bombs might go off.

Most of those present were children and four girls were killed in the explosion. Rev Cross later presided at a mass funeral for them where Martin Luther King Jr gave the eulogy.

The three men responsible for the bombing were all ex members of the Ku Klux Klan. Two of them, Robert Chambliss and Frank Cherry, have since died in prison. The third, Thomas Blanton, is currently serving a life sentence.

After the bombing, Rev Cross focused on the work of reconciliation between the races.

In 1968, Rev Cross moved on to be the director of the Baptist Student Centre at Alabama State University. Then in 1972, he became the associate pastor of Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur. His final position was black church relations director for the Atlanta Baptist Association, a post he held from 1977 until he retired in 1989.

According to his daughter, Rev Cross' health had been deteriorating recently, and he had been suffering from internal bleeding and a series of strokes, reports AP. He died on Thursday at DeKalb Medical at Hillandale at the age of 82.

His funeral is scheduled for Tuesday 20 November at Greenforest Community Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia.