church burnings
July 3, 2015 -
Following the shooting deaths of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston by a white supremacist, fires have been reported at seven black churches across the South, with three of the cases ruled arson. With anxiety gripping congregations, federal officials convened a national discussion this week to calm fears and encourage houses of worship to draw up emergency plans.
June 18, 2015 -
The massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church calls to mind the long history of racially-motivated attacks on black congregations in the South, including a wave of church-burnings in the 1990s. The man arrested in the Charleston killings appears to share at least some aspects of the profile of the typical church arsonist.
December 1, 1996 -
As a volatile mix of hatred and hard times sparks the destruction of Southern black churches, investigators downplay racism as the fuel behind the fires.
