wfn.org | NATIONAL RALLY SUPPORTS BURNED CHURCHES, ADDRESSES RACISM

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

NCC7/17/96                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 NEW YORK, July 15 ---- The epidemic of attacks
on African American churches "signals that race
continues to be the major problem of these United
States," National Council of Churches General
Secretary Joan Brown Campbell declared tonight at
the first national rally in support of burned
churches.

 "It is our responsibility to stay silent no
longer," she told the standing room only crowd of
more than 3,000 that packed the historic Abyssinian
Baptist Church.  "When Black churches are being
attacked, their pastors receiving hate calls in the
middle of the night, and their children being
threatened, freedom of worship and democracy itself
are at risk."

 Speaker after speaker -- including pastors from
burned churches and an array of U.S. and New York
City religious, political and civic leaders --
called on people of all races "to say to the nation
that racism is alive and well and must be rooted out
of the American culture."

 The National Council of Churches (NCC) has
taken the lead nationally to investigate and stop
the burning and desecration of places of worship for
reasons of racism, hatred and bigotry; bring the
perpetrators to justice; rebuild burned churches,
and address the underlying issue of racism.

 Partners in the effort include the Center for
Constitutional Rights, New York, cosponsor with the
NCC of the July 15 rally, and the Center for
Democratic Renewal, Atlanta.  The rally audience
contributed more than $18,000 to the NCC's Burned
Churches Fund to restore the damaged churches and
challenge racism throughout the country.

 The Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones, NCC Associate
General Secretary for Racial Justice who is heading
the NCC-led team effort, was rally keynoter, and
addressed the claims by "some folks trying to
suggest there is no racial motivation" in the
burning of Black churches.  "You need to know the
truth," he told his audience.

 Dr. Jones, who has visited the sites of more
than 30 burned churches since early March, told
story after story of racist graffiti sprayed on the
walls of burned and vandalized churches, threats
against pastors and their family members, and law
enforcement investigations -- local, state and
federal -- that ignored evidence of racist
motivation and even focused their interrogations on
members of the burned churches.

 He described how the NCC had brought 38 pastors
and others representing burned churches to
Washington, D.C., June 9-10 to meet with top
officials of the Justice and Treasury departments
"not to say how happy we were to be there but to
talk about how racism was operating in our own
government operations, which we looking at the
victims as if they were the suspects."

 For example, at The Inner City Church,
Knoxville, Tenn., burned Jan. 8, 1996, law
enforcement officials focused their whole
investigation on the church's members, interrogating
200 members, "even though 'KKK,' 'White is Right'
and 'Kill the Niggers' were scrawled on the charred
walls," Dr. Jones said.  Immediately following the
burning, the church's pastors, along with their
family members, began to receive threatening phone
calls at their homes.

 At Hammond Grove Baptist Church in Aiken, S.C.,
where the interior of the church was virtually
destroyed by vandals in March 1995, the graffiti
included, "Kill Niggers," "Satan Rules" and "White
Aryan Race" plus the drawing of a noose with the
word "nigger" pointing to the inside.

 In case after case, persons arrested, charged
and/or convicted of burning churches have been
connected to white supremacist groups, including the
Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Faction.  Many of these
have been card-carrying members.  According to
testimony in these cases in court, white supremacist
movement initiation rites include burning Black
churches, shooting into Black homes and lynching
Black people.

 Both Dr. Jones and Dr. Campbell commented on
the flood of offers of money, goods, labor and
skills from across the United States to help rebuild
the burned churches.  More than $7.7 million in cash
and in-kind gifts has been committed to the NCC's
Burned Churches Fund in less than two months, and
Dr. Campbell commented, "This is the outpouring of
concern by fellow Americans who are saying with
their dollars, 'Never again.'"

 Dr. Jones added, "What began as an awful
tragedy has become a watershed event.  The horror of
burned Black churches has drawn us together in ways
we haven't seen in 30 years.  Somehow this issue has
struck a chord in the soul of this nation."

 But while rebuilding the burned churches is
important, "we must not stop there, leaving the
climate of racism alone," he said.  He put the
attacks on Black churches into the context of the
political and social climate where affirmative
action is being undermined, hate speech flourishes,
anti-immigrant bias is strong and more and more
African Americans are being locked up by the fast-
growing prison industry.

 "Racism victimizes everyone, robs us of our
common humanity, undermines our respect for
ourselves and for others," he said.  "It isn't about
bias.  The issue is the ability to inflict our
dislike on another.  It's a power issue.  The test
of democracy in America is its ability to deliver on
racial equality in the boardrooms, in the police
departments, in the classrooms."

 Dr. Jones announced the NCC's plans to launch a
national mobilization against racism this fall that
will include major events in at least 12 cities.
Congressman John Conyers, Ranking Member of the
House Judiciary Committee, expressed his support for
such an effort, asserting, “We need to use this
tragedy to move race relations in America forward as
far as we can.  This program should go on the road
to every region of the United States.”  He suggested
starting with serious exchanges among congregations
of different races “to break up the most segregated
hour of the week.”

 Ron Daniels, Executive Director of the Center
for Constitutional Rights, was the rally's program
moderator, and the Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts, Pastor of
Abyssinian Baptist Church, the host.  Four
representatives of burned churches spoke.  The Rev.
Johnny McDonald, Pastor of St. Paul's Primitive
Baptist Church, Lauderdale, Miss., burned April 7,
1996, said, "We are holding together by the grace of
God."  The Rev. Harry Baldwin, Pastor of Gays Hill
Baptist Church, Millen, Ga., burned March 27, 1996,
described the "hurting feeling" of losing the church
after repeated vandalisms.

 Obie Clark, President of the Meridian, Miss.,
branch of the NAACP, described the spate of burnings
there and thanked the NCC and its partners "for
helping us in Mississippi and all over the South.
Without you, I tell you, it would be tough."

 And Spiver Gordon, Alabama State Coordinator
for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
described the "serious racism all over the state of
Alabama and the hate mail sent to pastors of burned
churches there."  He challenged the White community
to "go back to your churches and communities and get
those folks not only to give money but to give love.
It's racism that's fueling this," he said.  "We must
stand together and build a coalition of conscience."

 Other speakers included Congressman Donald
Payne, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus;
nationally syndicated radio talk show host Bob Law,
and the Rev. Al Sharpton, President of the National
Action Network.

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