wfn.org | Emergency Conference on Racism to Convene in South Carolina

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10-October-1996 
 
96407            Emergency Conference on Racism  
                   to Convene in South Carolina 
 
                        by Carol J. Fouke 
       National Council of Churches Office of News Services 
 
COLUMBIA, S.C.--The National Council of Churches (NCC), in collaboration 
with the Center for Constitutional Rights and the South Carolina Organizing 
Committee, is sponsoring "An Emergency Conference Against Racism" here Oct. 
24-26.  The conference is a Southeastern regional response to the 
unprecedented number of African-American houses of worship that have been 
burned, damaged or vandalized across the nation. 
 
     "One of the main purposes for this conference is to begin a national 
dialogue on racism," said the Rev. Mac Charles Jones, director of the NCC's 
Burned Churches Project.  "If we are to stop the epidemic of fires that is 
destroying so many of our churches, we must launch a campaign to get at the 
root causes and to eradicate this menace.  It is time to put an end to 
racial intolerance." 
 
     South Carolina has been selected for the kick-off conference in this 
national dialogue because it is the state with the most church burnings and 
where an increasing number of racially motivated crimes have occurred. 
"Moreover, we are incensed that the symbolism of slavery -- the Confederate 
flag -- continues to fly over the statehouse," asserted Ron Daniels, 
executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. 
 
     The conference, the first in a series of regional gatherings, will 
present a variety of speakers and panels to address racism and white 
supremacy. 
 
     Along with Jones and Daniels, speakers scheduled to appear include the 
Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary; the Rev. Jesse Jackson of 
the Rainbow Coalition; Kenneth Jones of the Peace Development Fund; Ron 
Hampton of the National Association of Black Police Officers; the Rev. 
Terrance Mackey, pastor of Mt. Zion AME Churchy of Greeleyville, S.C.; and 
Jan Love, professor of political science at the University of South 
Carolina. 

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