Arson Suspected After Six Black Churches Burn In the South | Sojourners

Arson Suspected After Six Black Churches Burn In the South

In the week after Dylann Roof shot nine people at Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston, S.C., five church buildings housing predominately black congregations have burned. On June 30, a sixth in Greeleyville, S.C. was aflame.

SCNow reported late June 30 that a historically black A.M.E. church in Greelyville, S.C. was burning, bringing the known number of predominantly black churches to catch fire in the south in the last two weeks to six.

The Southern Poverty Law Center suggested the string of nighttime fires “may not be a coincidence.”

The Washington Post reports:

Three of the fires [are] being investigated as arson.

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are working with local authorities to find those who set them.

“They’re being investigated to determine who is responsible and what motives are behind them,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told BuzzFeed News. “I’m not sure there is any reason to link them together at this point.”

Although the exact cause and motive for each of the fires remains unclear, the news evokes memories of America’s history of racialized church burnings. Since 1956, there have been 91 violent attacks on black churches, including many burnings, according to the The Huffington Post.

Black churches burning are a reminder of this history, regardless of who is doing the burning. As Emma Green wrote in The Atlantic:

“It’s true that a stupid kid might stumble backward into one of the most symbolically terrifying crimes possible in the United States, but that doesn’t make the terror of churches burning any less powerful.”

This post has been updated to reflect the events of June 30.

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