Naacp Chief Calls Blazes Hate Crimes

NAACP Board Chairwoman Myrlie Evers-Williams urged members Sunday night to remember the cause of fires at churches across the country, even as they begin to rebuild their congregations.

“It is wonderful to forgive … but it would be a tragedy to forget,” Evers-Williams said in her public remarks at the 87th annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

On Saturday, the convention’s opening day, she likened the church fires to ‘hate crime” and said “there is no place in America for it.”

Federal and local law enforcement officials are investigating scores of fires at churches across the country, many of them of suspicious origin.