While these fires may or may not be hate crimes or even arson, they are nevertheless disturbing, particularly in the wake of the mass shootings at the Emanuel AME Church.

Ralph E. Stone Global News Centre

(SAN FRANCISCO)  According to the Southern Poverty Law Center at least six predominantly black churches in four Southern states have been damaged or destroyed by fire in the past week. Some may have been accidental, at least three have been determined to be the result of arson.

David A. Love at Atlanta Blackstar comments:

“As the nation grapples with the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., one of the oldest Black churches in the South, other Black churches have become recent targets of arson. From slavery and the days of Jim Crow through the civil rights movement and beyond, white supremacists have targeted the Black church because of its importance as a pillar of the Black community, the center for leadership and institution building, education, social and political development and organizing to fight oppression. Strike at the Black church, and you strike at the heart of Black American life.”

While these fires may or may not be hate crimes or even arson, they are nevertheless disturbing, particularly in the wake of the mass shootings at the Emanuel AME Church.

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Global News Centre writer Ralph E. Stone was born in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of both Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School. We are very fortunate to have this writer’s talents in this troubling world; Ralph has an eye for detail that others miss. As is the case with many GlobalNewsCentre.com writers, Ralph is an American Veteran who served in war. Ralph served his nation after college as a U.S. Army officer during the Vietnam war. After Vietnam, he went on to have a career with the Federal Trade Commission as an Attorney specializing in Consumer and Antitrust Law. Over the years, Ralph has traveled extensively with his wife Judi, taking in data from all over the world, which today adds to his collective knowledge about extremely important subjects like the economy and taxation. You can send Ralph an email at this address [email protected]