wfn.org | Hate Crimes Awareness Initiative

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

Contact:
Ron Daniels, Center for Constitutional Rights: 212-614-6434
Rev. David Ostendorf, Center for New Community: 708-848-0319
Rev. Staccato Powell, National Council of Churches, 212-870-2227
Marilyn Katz, MK Communications: 312-822-0505.

National Coalition Launches Hate Crimes Awareness Initiative
Journey to Expose Illinois and Indiana Hate Groups
While Retracing Benjamin Smith's Campaign of Terror

85NCC7/21/99     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Launching a comprehensive campaign to combat hate
groups in America, a "Journey against Hate" will travel
through Illinois and Indiana this weekend, July 22 - 24, to
call attention to the growing presence of hate groups in the
Midwest.

 "The healing of this nation's racial divide rests
within the collective power of our will," the Rev. Dr.
Staccato Powell, Deputy Secretary for National Ministries of
the National Council of Churches, one of the co-sponsors of
the journey.  "The mainline faith community cannot continue
to be complicitous through the sin of silence."

 The journey will begin in Evanston, home of Ricky
Byrdsong, former Northwestern University basketball coach,
who was shot and killed by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith while
Byrdsong was walking with his children over the recent
Fourth of July weekend.

 Members of the nationwide Hate Crimes Awareness
Initiative will join victims' families and grassroots
supporters along Smith's deadly path - presenting specific
information about the presence of hate groups in neighboring
communities at each stop -- and using rallies and prayer
vigils to build opposition to the hate groups' divisive
message.

 Sadly, Smith is not alone in his hatred.  According to
the Oak Park-based Center for New Community, which monitors
hate groups in the Midwest and is a cosponsor of the event,
there are 51 hate groups operating in 35 communities in
Illinois and 34 groups operating in 30 communities in
Indiana. These include the World Church of the Creator, a
white supremacist group of which Smith was a member.

 "Smith is a logical outcome of the hatred espoused by
the World Church of the Creator, and they have to take full
responsibility for his actions," said Rev. David Ostendorf,
director of the Center for New Community. "But on a broader
scale, our center is tracking 272 hate groups in a nine
state region in the Midwest. That reflects the breadth and
depth of this problem."

 Two people were killed and nine injured in Illinois and
Indiana during Smith's Fourth of July weekend rampage, in
which he targeted racial and religious minorities.

 The victims include Byrdsong, an African American, and
Korean graduate student, Won Joon Yoon of the University of
Indiana, who both died from their injuries. In addition,
several Orthodox Jews, Asians and African Americans were
injured or shot at during the killing spree. Smith killed
himself as he struggled with police.

 Made up of a coalition of religious, civil rights and
anti-discrimination groups, the Initiative intends to expose
the breadth of a burgeoning racist and anti-Semitic movement
across the country and its links to the continuing burning
of churches and synagogues. The Initiative will also
pressure the U.S. Justice Department to investigate groups
like the World Church of the Creator, where Smith was a
member, and will work for federal hate crimes legislation.

 "The time has come to get down to the business of
educating, agitating and organizing hate groups out of
existence," said Ron Daniels, executive director of the
Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based civil
rights group that is a co-sponsor of the journey. "We can no
longer dismiss their activities as fringe and out of the
mainstream. That does little for the victims of the violence
their rhetoric inspires."

 Other co-sponsors include the Illinois Conference of
Churches, the National Council of Churches, the Atlanta-
based Center for Democratic Renewal, the National Coalition
for Burned Churches, the Asian-American Legal Defense and
Education Fund, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, the
Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of
Christ; the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the
National Board for Global Ministries of the United Methodist
Church; and the National Black United Front.

The journey will make the following stops:

Thursday
Noon. Evanston: News conference at St. Joan of Arc
Catholic Church, 9428 N. Lawndale St.
5 p. m. East Peoria: Rally near the City Administration
Building, followed by an event at the headquarters of the
World Church of the Creator.
7 p. m. East Peoria: Prayer vigil at Eckwood Park of the
Community Gateway Center.

Friday
10 a.m. Springfield: News conference and speakers at the
Union Baptist Church, 1405. E. Monroe St.
 1 p.m. Decatur: Prayer vigil and news conference at the
Greater Faith Temple Church of All People, 790 S. 17th
Street.
4 p. m. Champaign: News conference and speakers at the
Union YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street.

Saturday
Noon Bloomington, Indiana: News conference and briefing on
the extent of hate groups in the Midwest and across the
nation and the relationship of hate groups to the burning
and bombing of synagogues and black churches and mosques.

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