wfn.org | NCC TO PROBE BLACK CHURCH FIREBOMBS

[MIKE_MAUS.parti@ecunet.org]

April 2, 1996
National Council of Churches
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, 212-870-2252
email: CAROL_FOUKE@Ecunet.org

35NCC3/28/96
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC TEAMS WILL VISIT FIREBOMBED BLACK CHURCHES IN U.S. SOUTH

 NEW YORK, April 2 ---- The National Council of Churches (NCC) plans an
aggressive effort to find out who firebombed 25 Black churches in the South
since January, 1995.  The NCC will send teams this spring to visit the
churches as part of a larger coalition to investigate the firebombings and
pressure the federal government to bring the bombers to justice.

 The NCC's work is coordinated with the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic
Renewal (CDR), which is conducting an independent investigation of the
firebombings, and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights
(CCR), which is exploring legal strategies, including possible litigation,
to combat the rising number of attacks.

 "Our visits will seek to give greater visibility to the issue of racism in
America and to provide moral support for the affected congregations and
communities," said the Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones, NCC Associate for Racial
Justice.  

 The coalition also plans to convene pastors of all the firebombed churches
in Washington, D.C., for a Day of Action in June.

 The CDR's preliminary report, just released, states that "from January
1990 through March 1996, as many as 45 African-American and interracial
churches in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana and
other states were bombed, burned or defaced."  A White church in Georgia
was bombed after its pastor spoke out against cross burnings.  The report
documents "the strong connection between church attacks and white
supremacist groups." (For a copy, call the CDR: 404-221-0025.)

 The firebombings were a major subject at the March 25-26 meeting in New
York of leaders of six historically Black U.S. denominations with the
General Secretaries of the NCC (the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell) and World
Council of Churches (the Rev. Dr. Konrad Raiser).  That group will meet
again May 28 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

 The National Council of Churches, the nation's leading ecumenical
organization, is comprised of 33 member communions which have a total
membership of more than 51-million in more than 140,000 congregations.

-end-

Mike Maus
Associate General Secretary, Communication and Interpretation
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Written at  4:23 pm on Tue, Apr  2, 1996 in the New York City office.