wfn.org | UPDATE -- NCCCUSA RACISM CONFERENCE OCT. 24-6

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

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

NCC10/11/96                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DETAILS: NCC ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE, COLUMBIA, S.C., 
OCT. 24-26

COLUMBIA, South Carolina, Oct. 11 - "A vision 
of a just and equitable society and a plan to get 
there" - that is the goal of the National Council of 
Churches' "Emergency Conference Against Racism" set 
for Oct. 24-26 in Columbia, S.C.

Participants from across the Southeast, along 
with religious and civic leaders from across the 
United States, will work together "to identify, 
challenge and dismantle white supremacy and the root 
causes of racial hatred and violence in America."  
The Columbia conference is the first in a series to 
be held across the nation to address the racism that 
underlies the current epidemic of attacks on African 
American houses of worship.

"The Burned Churches Program of the NCC, since 
its inception, has had as its goals both restoring 
the churches and attacking the racism that inspired 
the fires," said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, 
NCC General Secretary, New York.  "The elimination 
of racial injustice long has been a number one 
priority of the NCC.  We hope this conference will 
begin the process of overcoming the racism that 
persists in our society."

Commented the Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones, 
Director of the NCC's Burned Churches Project and 
Pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in Kansas City, 
Mo., "We are deeply gratified by the positive 
response to the conference.  Given the number of 
notable speakers who are already committed to 
appear, it promises to be a wide-ranging discussion 
on ways in which we can deal concretely with racial 
intolerance."

The Columbia, S.C., State newspaper, in an Oct. 
9, 1996, editorial, welcomed the "Emergency 
Conference Against Racism" as "another step to a 
deeper and, it is hoped, lasting response to the 
church burnings of the spring and summer."  That 
editorial concluded, "In the rubble of the burned 
churches smoulders opportunity, and we should grasp 
it fiercely."

U.S.A. Today also welcomed the conference as 
part of a wider renewed attention to racism in the 
United States.  The Columbia conference's objective, 
the Oct. 10, 1996, editorial observed, is "to treat 
church burnings as a symptom of larger racial 
problems, with the hope that those problems will get 
the attention they deserve."

Collaborating on the conference with the NCC 
are the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, 
and an ecumenical South Carolina Organizing 
Committee, based in Columbia.

Dr. Campbell and Dr. Jones will address the 
conference, as will the Rev. Terrance Mackey, pastor 
of Mt. Zion AME Church in Greeleyville, S.C., and 
the Rev. Patricia Lowman, pastor of St. John Baptist 
Church in Dixiana, S.C., both of whom had their 
churches destroyed by fire.

Other speakers include Ron Daniels, executive 
director of the Center for Constitutional Rights; 
Mary Ann Mauney, research director of the Center for 
Democratic Renewal; Fox Butterfield of the New York 
Times; the Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of Abyssinian 
Baptist Church; Dr. Janice Love, professor of 
political science at the University of South 
Carolina; Dr. David Shannon,  president of Allen 
University; Dr. William Gibson of the NAACP; Imam 
Omar Shaheed of Masjid Al Muslimin; Ron Nixon of the 
Institute for Southern Studies, and many other 
religious and civic leaders.

 Workshops will be offered on church burnings, 
racism, women's rights, welfare reform, school 
tracking, prisoners' rights and criminal justice 
reform, redistricting and voting rights, 
environmental racism, youth/minor rights and 
economic development.

The conference is being held in South Carolina, 
the organizers said, because it is the state with 
the most church burnings (32 since 1991) and the 
symbolism of the Confederate flag flying over the 
Statehouse provides a dramatic backdrop for the 
dialogue on race that the NCC and others are seeking 
to generate..

Venues for registration and conference sessions 
are St. John's Baptist Church, 3404 Beltline 
Boulevard (sessions Oct. 24, beginning at 5 p.m.); 
Bethel A.M.E. Church, 819 Woodrow Street (sessions 
Oct. 25, beginning at 9 a.m.), and the University of 
South Carolina, Belk Auditorium, Business 
Administration Building (sessions Oct. 26, beginning 
at 8 a.m.)

The registration fee for the conference is $10 
in advance or $20 at the door.  (Make checks payable 
to the National Council of Churches Burned Churches 
Fund.)  For further information, call 1-800-804-
3624.

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