Eight Black Churches Burnt Since Terrorist Attack in Charleston

The Pan-African Flag

So while the whole world mourned and expressed horror, sadness and shame over the murder of nine African Americans in church in Charleston some white supremacists saw this as a signal to lash out at African Americans by burning their churches in acts of vandalism motivated by racist hatred.

While at least two appear to have been "of natural causes" as will be noted below this is a terrible development stemming from the terrorist attack in Charleston.

In what may not be a coincidence, a string of nighttime fires have damaged or destroyed at least six predominately black churches in four southern states in the past week. Arsonists started at least three of the fires, while other causes are being examined in the other fires, investigators say. (Bill Morlin, String of Nighttime Fires Hit Predominately Black Churches in Four Southern States, Hatewatch, June 26, 2015.)

So far eight churches have been burnt.

Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, a prominent African-American church in Greeleyville, S.C., caught fire late Tuesday. It is the eighth black church in the Southern U.S. to burn in 10 days. (Alissa Greenburg, Time, Another Black Church Burns in the South, the 8th in 10 Days, July 1, 2015.)

Curiously enough the first church burnt was a Seventh Day Adventist church. Armstrongism is related to the Seventh Day Adventist Church sharing a common descent from the Millerite Adventists of the 1830s and 1840s.

The wave of fires began on June 21 with a fire at College Hill Seventh Day Adventist in Knoxville, Tenn. and continued across at least four states in the southeastern and central United States. Three fires have been officially declared arson and at least two were deemed to have been the result of natural causes. (Alissa Greenburg, Time, The Black Church Fires in Southern States Are Not Connected, Authorities Say.)

This is terrible. May any arsonist responsible soon be caught and face justice in the courts of law.