Posted on 02/09/2006 12:12:50 PM PST by WKB
THEY came under cover of darkness like the night riders of the old Ku Klux Klan. They drove down the back roads of rural Alabama, looking for wooden churches in forest clearings. When they found them, they kicked in the doors and set them alight.
Four Baptist churches scattered 15-20km around the tiny town of Boligee, near the Mississippi border, were burnt in this manner this week. All had black congregations.
Five churches in Bibb County, farther to the east, were destroyed or badly damaged by fire last Friday. Of those, four had predominantly white congregations and the fifth was mainly black.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed it was investigating whether the string of arson attacks in Alabama during the past week had been racially motivated hate crimes.
"Obviously, somebody or somebodies are interested in burning down churches. Whether it's hate against a race or religion in general, we don't know," said Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state insurance agency that oversees fire investigations.
FBI acting assistant director Chip Burrus said the investigators were working on the assumption that all nine fires were connected.
FBI special agent Nancy Nelson went further, saying the bureau was looking for evidence this was a "civil rights violation or hate crime".
In a country with about 350,000 churches, such arson attacks are by no means uncommon. But in the deep south of the US, they are always likely to causefear.
Alabama is where the Ku Klux Klan's first members were recruited in the 19th century. In the 1960s, it was where Rosa Parks boarded a bus and caused fury by sitting in a seat reserved for whites. Governor George Wallace attempted to preserve segregation, and Martin Luther King was initially blocked by state troopers from marching into Montgomery in protest.
And Boligee, Alabama, is also where, 10 years ago, there was another series of mysterious fires at black Baptist churches. The arsonist was never caught and there remain doubts about whether the attacks were racially motivated.
But as former US president Jimmy Carter said at the funeral of King's widow, Coretta Scott King, Alabama remains one of those states where "the struggle for equal rights is not over".
Many black churches were established before black people had cars, or when they were slaves. They are usually simple structures tucked away on back roads, with tiny congregations and part-time pastors. But they remain anchors of black life in the south, and symbols of black independence.
In Boligee, Johnny Archibald stood outside the smouldering ruins of the Morning Star Baptist Church, which was burnt down to its concrete block foundation. All that remained of the wood-frame building were the front steps and the handrail. "I don't know what's going on," he said. "It's just sickness."
Mary Britton, who works near the Dancy First Baptist, another church that was burnt on Tuesday, said: "We're scared. It's horrible to know there's stuff like that in a person's heart."
Residents spotted a sports utility vehicle speeding through an intersection near the Morning Star church on Tuesday night.
Members of the Old Union Baptist Church in Brierfield, which was damaged by fire on Friday, had told of a dark SUV near their church as they arrived to douse the flames.
Authorities were taking plaster casts of tyre tracks and footprints found on a blackened door that had been kicked in, and dogs were searching the smouldering rubble.
Officials said they were looking for a dark-coloured car. All of the fires were on small roads off the main highway, and police believe the arsonist knows the area well, possibly through hunting.
The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has sent 50 agents to Alabama to investigate the fires, in addition to the 10 investigators from the FBI. The US Government has offered $US10,000 ($13,500) in rewards for information about the attacks.
Austin Banks, a senior special agent for the bureau, said there were "many common signs" between the series of arson attacks.
Most showed signs of forced entry, and the fires had begun near the pulpit, in the sanctuary area of the church.
"It's a sad sight to see a smouldering church, particularly when it doesn't have a rich congregation," Mr Banks said.
"This is going to be our top priority until we put someone in jail."
Maybe it was Muslims.....?
MS\Baptist ping
If the fire bugs were klansmen, then why did they burn both black, AND white churches?
No, it's either islamic in nature, or some bunch of hate filled liberal lefty types, punishing Christians for supporting Bush.
I tend to subscribe to the latter more than the former.
Has the Klan commented on any of this?
-SoL1
These church burnings have attracted astonishingly little national press coverage, (after all, it's not like they're REALLY important like gay bars), but if the MSM can spin this into a racial issue, and maybe even pin it on talk radio, we'll hear about nothing else.
The liberal press avoids any possibility of granting Christians victim status.
The perfect guys when it comes to church fires.
My question is how the perpetrators would be charged if caught. Would they get extra counts for burning black churches than white ones? Would they get separate federal charges for burning the black churches (but not the white ones)?
My money is on the "hate filled liberal lefty types."
Were the Baptist churches burned in rural Georgia a day or two before these "black"?
Klan? No, not unless the Klan has turned their sheets into turbans and bhurkas........
Ockhams Razor demands looking at an Insurance scam..
No, but they were after the fires.......
The timing can't be ignored. Could be the other sheetheads or the NOI, as the former would stand out in those parts..
Anti-Baptists?
Annabaptists........
Sheetheads by any other name..
This morning I heard on TV the authorities have ruled out that this was a 'hate crime'.....I guess burning down Christian churches is okay if they aren't ethnic minorties? I'm sorry...what are the 'hate crime' rules again?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.