Fires at black churches stir fears, ignite online activists
Thousands of social media users are tweeting the same question: Who is burning black churches?
Fires at six black churches in the South over the last 10 days have stirred fears that racial violence on houses of worship is making a comeback – perhaps as a backlash to criticism of the Confederate flag since nine black parishioners were slain, allegedly by a white supremacist, at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The flames evoke a haunting reminder of white supremacist terrorism from decades ago.
The fires also ignited an online army of activists who coalesced during the street protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and who have become a kind of rapid-deployment force for black America. Their passion for justice and skepticism of investigators’ accounts have been a regular presence after police shootings.
This week, their focus has been on church fires. But investigators say only two of the six blazes have been confirmed as arsons, not one has been declared a hate crime, and they are not connected.
“We are in the early stages of these investigations, but at this time we have no reason to believe these fires are racially motivated or related,” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a statement.
Some data suggest the number of church fires may not be that unusual. But as with police shootings after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, each church incident is getting extra scrutiny.
“Stop the passive language. Fires aren’t ‘breaking out’ at black churches. Black churches are being set on fire,” one person tweeted.
“At what point are we allowed to say black America is under attack?” tweeted another.
NAACP President Cornell William Brooks issued a statement saying, “As we wait for authorities to conduct their investigations, the NAACP and our state conferences across the country will remain vigilant and work with local churches and local law enforcement to ensure that all are taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of every parishioner,” Brooks said, adding, “We will use every tool in our advocacy arsenal to preserve these beloved institutions.”
The alarm echoes concerns raised in the 1990s when a surge of church arsons – especially against black churches in the South – led to tougher arson laws and creation of a church arson task force made up of federal and local officials.
Of 827 arsons, bombings or attempted bombings at religious buildings that the National Church Arson Task Force investigated between 1995 and 1999, at least 269 involved black churches, 185 of them in the South.
That ugly time remained fresh in the mind of Greeleyville, South Carolina, Mayor Jessie Parker, who visited the smoldering remains of the city’s Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday after a fire destroyed the sanctuary the night before.
Twenty years ago, Ku Klux Klan members burned Mount Zion AME.
On Wednesday, Parker urged patience as investigators worked to determine the cause of the latest fire. “It gives you an ill feeling,” he told reporters. “It brought back all those old memories.”