Church burnings

During the mid-1990s, specifically between January 1, 1995, and June 1, 1997, the southeastern United States experienced a rash of arsons, fire bombings, and attempted fire bombings of Black American and multiracial houses of worship. Leaders in the Black American communities targeted by the arsonists were quick to compare the activity to similar events during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Churches, they noted, had historically been the targets of hate crimes because they were so closely associated with the Black unity of the civil rights struggle. Several organizations, most notably the National Council of Churches, held press conferences calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), a section of the US Department of the Treasury, and law enforcement agencies to be more aggressive in investigating the suspicious fires. President Bill Clinton formed the National Church Arson Task Force (NCATF) in response to the public outcry, with a call for federal oversight of the arson investigations.

The US Congress unanimously passed legislation that expanded the circumstances under which the federal government could prosecute for damage to religious property. The measure extended the statute of limitations for prosecution of church arson cases from five to seven years and increased penalties for church arson from ten to twenty years. Despite criticism from many Black American leaders that the US Department of Justice and the ATF were not moving quickly enough in their investigations, a special church arson task force arrested nearly two hundred suspects by mid-1997. More than one hundred of those arrested were eventually convicted in federal and state courts on charges related to the destruction of more than seventy churches. Those arrested were overwhelmingly White, and nearly half were juveniles. Most of those found guilty of federal offenses were convicted of civil rights violations as a result of evidence that the crimes were racially motivated. Federal officials could find no evidence that the arson activity was coordinated or directed by a group of individuals or an organization.

The national response in support of the victims of the church burnings was equally impressive. A joint effort by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Council of Churches, Habitat for Humanity, and many other groups rebuilt most of the churches. The Congress of National Black Churches also established a fund to prevent future arsons and to rebuild churches that had been burned. Philanthropic contributions, including from the Eli Lilly Foundation and Leona Helmsley, supported reconstruction efforts.

In 2008, in Springfield, Massachusetts, after the election of the United States' first Black American president, a predominately Black American church being built was burned to the ground. Three White men were charged with the crime; two pleaded guilty, with the third being convicted and sentenced to thirteen years. In 2015, a spike in arson was recorded against Black churches. On June 23, God's Power Church of Christ in Georgia was set on fire. Investigators ruled the fire arson. That same night, a Black church in Charlotte, North Carolina, was intentionally set on fire in what investigators deemed a hate crime. Within the span of just two weeks, five Black churches in the southeast were set on fire, beginning just a week after a deadly shooting at a Black South Carolina church that authorities deemed a hate crime. In 2019, authorities once again investigated three suspicious fires in the South that targeted Black churches.

In the 2020s, incidents of hostility against houses of worship in the United States continued to draw concern, both from law enforcement and civil society groups. Data compiled by organizations tracking hostile acts against churches—including arson, vandalism, bomb threats, and other crimes—show that such incidents have risen sharply since 2018, with hundreds of attacks documented nationwide through 2024, affecting congregations in dozens of states. Family Research Council reports identified more than 1,380 acts of hostility against US churches between 2018 and 2024, including at least 415 incidents in 2024 alone, even as the total dipped slightly from a record high in 2023.

Bibliography

Barry, Dan. "Up From the Ashes, a Symbol That Hate Does Not Win." New York Times, 25 Sept. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/us/church-rebuilds-after-2008-election-night-arson.html. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.

Blackstock, Terri. Trial by Fire. Zondervan, 2000.

“FRC Publishes New Edition of Hostility Against Churches Report Indicating Over 400 Acts of Hostility.” Family Research Council, 11 Aug. 2025, www.frc.org/newsroom/frc-publishes-new-edition-of-hostility-against-churches-report-indicating-over-400-acts-of-hostility. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.

Green, Emma. “Black Church Are Burning Again in America.” The Atlantic, 25 June 2015, www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/06/arson-churches-north-carolina-georgia/396881/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.

Johnson, Sandra. Standing on Holy Ground: A Triumph Over Hate Crime in the Deep South. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 2005.

Sanchez, Ray, and Deanna Hackney. “Suspicious Fires Consume 3 Black Churches in 10 Days in a Louisiana Parish.” CNN, 7 Apr. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/04/06/us/louisiana-black-church-fires/index.html. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.

 “Violent History: Attack on Black Churches.” The New York Times, 18 June 2015, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/18/us/19blackchurch.html#:~:text=Springfield%2C%20Mass.,-Macedonia%20Church%20of&text=The%20predominantly%20black%20church%2C%20which,to%2013%20years%20in%20prison. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.