c. 1996 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)-The Clinton administration Tuesday (May 21) defended its handling of a string of suspicious arsons at African-American churches, saying it had more than 200 federal agents investigating the incidents.
Federal officials who testified at a one-day House Judiciary Committee hearing also said that while they were”actively”investigating whether the church fires resulted from a national or regional conspiracy, no such evidence had been uncovered.
Religious groups as disparate as the Christian Coalition and the National Council of Churches, along with civil-rights groups and some members of Congress, however, criticized the government efforts and urged law enforcement agencies to commit more resources to solving the crimes.”We have been outraged at these continuing attacks on places of worship-and sorely disappointed that until recently law enforcement in particular, as well as government and media in general-have seemed only mildly interested in focusing on these acts of terrorism,”the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), told the hearing.
Lowery, however, said he was”not surprised at this feeble response”to the church burnings because the nation has denied and downplayed racism throughout its history.
The Rev. Earl W. Jackson, national liaison for urban development of the Christian Coalition, called the federal response to the arsons”woefully inadequate”and placed the blame on Clinton.”The bottom line here is that the president of the United States should do what the American people elected him to do: Lead,”he said.”Give the appropriate law enforcement agencies clear direction and hold them accountable.”Frankly, there has been no serious indication to us or the public in general that he (Clinton) is interested,”Jackson added.
The coalition has offered a $25,000 reward in the arson case.
Rights groups say there have been at least 50 suspicious burnings of African-American or predominantly black churches since 1990, primarily in the southeastern United States but also in Washington state, Arizona and New Jersey.
Tuesday’s session, which included testimony from officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was far less rancorous than past hearings on incidents such as the siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, or the shootout at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
In fact, one committee member, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, complained of the lack of passion among her colleagues in the questioning of witnesses. The hearing, she said, was little more than”the pleasant experience of making pleasant inquiries”of the law enforcement officials.”You’ve got burned churches and burned history; you’ve got intimidated communities,”she said, warning that the failure of the committee and law enforcement officials to sound a tougher note means that”we have a tragedy brewing here”that could lead to a loss of life as great as in Waco, where 80 Branch Davidians and 4 ATF agents died.
Deval Patrick, assistant attorney general and head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, told the committee the Clinton administration”is determined to address this problem using all the law enforcement and investigative tools available.” The church fires, he said, are”among our most important investigative and prosecutorial priorities.” Similarly, John W. Magaw, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told the committee that it is currently investigating 25 church arsons at predominantly African-American churches in the Southeast.”We have committed virtually every arson investigative resource at our disposal to the investigation of the African-American church fires,”Magaw said.
Patrick told the committee that”it is clear … from some of the cases that have been solved, that some of the people who have set fires at houses of worship are motivated by hate.” But he said”it is premature to draw conclusions one way or the other as to whether the fires we are seeing are part of an organized hate movement.” Magaw said a conspiracy was uncovered involving at least two fires in South Carolina.”We have not yet-and I emphasize, not yet-found any evidence so far of an interstate or national conspiracy, but until our work is done, no motive or suspect will be eliminated,”he said.
Not everyone is convinced.
The National Council of Churches, one of the first religious groups to call attention to the church fires, said in testimony submitted to the committee that its investigations have”uncovered striking similarities”in the arson incidents,”parallels that constitute a pattern of abuses-including the use of molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices, the spray painting of racist graffiti, the targeting of churches with a history of strong advocacy for African-American rights.” Of the 30 persons so far arrested and/or convicted in connection to the church fires, all are white males between 15 and 45 and several have admitted membership in racist groups, according to the National Council of Churches testimony.”We suspect, however, that many more perpetrators of these crimes have not been arrested and brought to justice because investigations, to date, have focused in large measure on the pastors and members of the burned churches rather than on the violent history of the … racist groups,”the National Council of Churches said.
The Rev. Terrance G. Mackey Sr., pastor of Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, S.C., whose 150-member church burned to the ground June 20, 1995, praised the law-enforcement effort. Mackey told the committee that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was”doing a very fine job on this case.”
MJP END ANDERSON
