Blog #6 – Critique

Historical Perspective

Fires burn down 3 black churches within 10 days

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/06/710711294/there-is-clearly-something-happening-3-black-churches-are-set-on-fire-in-louisia

List of attacks against black churches

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_against_African-American_churches

A string of fires in Lousiana has claimed 3 black churches so far in a span of ten days.  Officials are hypothesizing that it was racially fueled foul play. The fires affected the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, the Greater Union Baptist Church in the city of Opelousas, and the St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre. No one was killed or injured, thankfully, in these fires.  A fourth fire was also reported to affect a predominately white church in Caddo Parish, which is three hours north of the area. Even with this fourth church targeting a predominately white church, people still think the fires were racially motivated and the fourth one being an outlier.

This was not the first time a predominantly black church was intentionally burned down or targeted.  The burning of predominately black churches can be traced back to the 1800s, wherein 1822 a church in Charleston was burnt down.  In the post Civil War time period, racial hate symbols ran free, terrorizing people of the black community, especially in the Jim Crow South.  People fueled with hatred would leave flaming crosses on the yards of churches, sparking fear in those within. Church arsons were especially common in the civil rights era, with tensions rising as the black community sought to obtain the rights they naturally deserved.  One major bombing was even done towards a church in this time. The 16th street Baptist Church, a famous church that many black civil rights leaders met in, of Alabama killed 4 little girls with a gas bomb in 1963. This sparked outcry and greatly assisted in the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1963.  The attack of churches also helped force other legal actions to protect these religious grounds. 30 churches were burned between 1995 and 1996, forcing Congress to create the Church Arson Prevention Act. More recently, in 2016, a predominately black church was burnt down in Mississippi with graffiti posted on it.  “Vote Trump”, the graffiti said. The irony behind this specific situation being the arson was actually black, with the person pleading guilty this year, 2019.

This was an interesting read for me, especially researching the past of black churches and the attacks and hate they receive from nationalists and racists.  The part that affected me emotionally the most was what the person they interviewed had said. They could care less as to who or why the fire had occurred. Instead, they cared more about the recovery process and the future of the church.  “–whether or not we are told who did it, or why they did it, it doesn’t bring our church back, and all the memories that we had,” They said. “It’s like losing a family member, or losing a family home.” It seemed to me that they had given up on rectifying the situation and instead chose to ignore the person who had done it in whole, moving on from the event.

It really had me pondering about apologies in situations considered this grave.  Would an apology even be worth giving at this point? If the person even apologized, would it help the patrons of the churches burn to heal?  Would it make the church patrons angrier? Apologies can be given to heal people that were wronged, but in the event of arson, is the wound as permanent as a burn scar much like the burned down history and memories within the church?

As they said, the church is burned down and nothing but ashes now.  It will never be the same church these people went to every day. Most likely, it will never feel the same as well, with the feeling of protection their religious entity grants them while inside.  Fires are extremely devastating and can be almost impossible to get over because of their sheer destructive ability. From the history I researched, I can understand why they had such a defeated approach to the situation.  The history is there and obvious to see. Racially fueled anger is constant and attacks on predominantly black churches are something that will continue to happen as long as racism is allowed to go on strong.

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