Six black churches burned. Two weeks. Three blazes that could be arson.
Authorities have yet to determine whether the fires that have ripped through the buildings of predominantly black churches in the South in the past weeks were hate crimes -- or if they were even linked. But activists and religious leaders were quick to connect the dots on social media, asking the question #WhoIsBurningBlackChurches?
Black churches have long been symbols of power, community and liberation for African Americans -- and as a result, have often become a target when white supremacists feel their own power is being threatened.
In Greeleyville, South Carolina, on Wednesday, investigators were picking through the charred remains of the Mount Zion A.M.E. Church. Federal officials believe the fire may have been caused by a lightning strike, as heavy storms moved through the area on Tuesday night. Still, it was an eerily familiar site for parishioners. The church had been gutted in 1995 by a fire set by two Ku Klux Klan members.
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Lisa Sharon Harper, chief church engagement officer at the Christian social justice organization Sojourners, said she believes it “can’t be a coincidence” the fires happened to coincide with the backlash against the Confederate flag. She pointed to similar church bombings and burnings that happened during the Reconstruction Era in the South and the Civil Rights Era, and during racial reconciliation efforts that followed the Rodney King incident. Arsonists even torched a black church in Massachusetts hours after Barack Obama became the nation’s first black president.
“Whenever you have African Americans in history pushing back against white supremacy, you inevitably have church burnings,” Harper told HuffPost. “In light of Confederate flags being taken down off of government buildings, this is a true threat to the dominance of whiteness in America.”