Is The Klan Burning Churches Again?
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There has been a wave of church burnings in the South during the last couple of weeks, following the notorious mass murder in a landmark Charlotte, SC AME church:
[Glover Grove Baptist Church] is one of at least six black church fires in the South, all of which have taken place in the week-and-a-half since nine people were killed in Emanuel AME Church.
Fires in Charlotte, N.C., and Knoxville, Tenn., are both being investigated as arson. Authorities in Macon, Ga., are investigating another there as “suspicious.” A fire at a Tallahassee, Fla., church was likely caused by electrical problems, authorities have said. Another in Gibson County, Tenn., may have been caused by lightning. One burning in Charlotte is being investigated to determine if it could have been a hate crime.
And last night, a landmark AME church in South Carolina that had been rebuilt after being set afire by the Ku Klux Klan two decades ago was destroyed in a fire:
A historic South Carolina black church was gutted by a fire Tuesday night, just hours after the NAACP warned pastors nationwide to be vigilant following a series of blazes at Southern black churches.
Flames engulfed the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, about 60 north of Charleston, as it burned for nearly three hours.
“It’s gone,” State Rep. Cezar McKnight (D-Kingstree) told the Post and Courier.”They don’t know the cause yet, but I am hoping for the best.”
Mount Zion AME is now the seventh black church in the South to be burned in the past two weeks. It was previously burned to the ground almost exactly 20 years ago by the Ku Klux Klan.
Tuesday’s fire started around 8:30 p.m. and was under control by 11, officials said. Photos showed the church completely consumed by fire, with its roof destroyed and its towering white spire vanished into the flames.
The troublesome truth is that a pattern had already been discerned by law enforcement authorities, and yet a church that had once been a target of the Klan has again been destroyed.
Just don’t call it a wave of racist terrorism targeting a religious and ethnic group – I mean, seven torched black churches must be some kind of coincidence, and such speculation would be way too premature, right?[su_facebook][su_center_b]
