List of attacks against African-American churches
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Attacks against
African-American church The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their ...
es in the United States have taken the form of arson, bombings,
mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...
,
hate crimes A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
, and
white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
-propelled
domestic terrorism Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims.Gary M. Jackson, ''Predicting Malicious Behavior: Tools and Techniques ...
. This timeline documents acts of violence against churches with predominantly black leadership and congregations.


19th century

*1822
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This, ...
in Charleston, South Carolina was burned down.


20th century

* 1921 May 31 Black Wall Street Church, Bombed, Tulsa Oklahoma


1951–1960

* 1955 October 5 Burning of St. James AME Church, Lake City, South Carolina * 1956 December 25 Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed. * 1957 April 28 At Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church in Bessemer, Alabama, dynamite exploded at the rear of the church during an evening service. * 1958 June 29 Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed again. This time, guards removed the bombs to a ditch; the blast blew out the windows, however.


1961–1970

* 1962 January 16 New Bethel Baptist Church, St Luke's African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Triumph Church Kingdom of God and Christ, all three in Birmingham, Alabama, were fire-bombed. * 1962 September 25 St. Matthew's Baptist Church of Macon, Georgia, was burned. "It is the fifth church to burn in a month." * 1962 December 14 At Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a third bomb blew out the church windows. * 1963 August 10 St. James United Methodist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, was destroyed by a "gasoline fire bomb." * 1963 September 15
16th Street Baptist Church The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. In 1963, the church was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members. The bombing killed four young girls in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The church is stil ...
in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed during a Sunday church service. Twenty-two people were injured and four girls died. * 1964 June 16 Mount Zion Methodist Church in Longdale, Mississippi, was burned to the ground. An investigation by Mississippi civil rights workers led to the
murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, refers to events in which three activists were abducted and murdered in ...
. * 1964 July 30 Mount Moriah Baptist Church near Meridian, Mississippi was leveled by fire. This attack is connected to countless others that were meant to intimidate Black residents who were active in the
Civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. * 1964 July 31 Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Rankin County, Mississippi, 15 miles east of Jackson, was burned shortly before midnight. At least 15 churches were damaged or destroyed by lire between the statewide civil rights drive opening in mid-June and this day.


1971–1980

* 1972 (exact date unknown) Cartersville Baptist Church, in Reston, Virginia, was burned, causing the main church to fall into the basement. * 1974 June 30 At
Ebenezer Baptist Church Ebenezer Baptist Church is a Baptist church located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with the Progressive National Baptist Convention and American Baptist Churches USA. It was the church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was co-past ...
in
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, Georgia,
Alberta Williams King Alberta Christine Williams King (September 13, 1904 – June 30, 1974) was Martin Luther King Jr.'s mother, married to Martin Luther King Sr. She played a significant role in the affairs of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. She was shot and ki ...
, mother of
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
, and Edward Boykin were killed by a man who had determined that "black ministers were a menace to black people." A third churchgoer was wounded. * 1977 December 18 Zoah Methodist Church, Mulberry Baptist in Wilkes County, Georgia; Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Antioch CME in Lincoln County, Georgia. Three teens were found guilty in the burning of 4 black churches in Wilkes and Lincoln counties. * 1979 December 16 Second Wilson Church of Chester, South Carolina, a meeting place for civil rights activists, was gutted by fire.


1981–1990


1991–2000

More than 30 black churches were burned in an 18-month period in 1995 and 1996, leading Congress to pass the Church Arson Prevention Act. * 1993 April 5 Rocky Point Missionary Baptist Church in Pike County, Mississippi, was set on fire by three teenagers who served time. * 1995 January 13 Johnson Grove Baptist Church in Bells, Tennessee, was burned. * 1995 January 13 Macedonia Baptist Church in Denmark, Tennessee, was burned. * 1995 January 31 Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Hardeman County, Tennessee, was burned. * 1995 June 21 Outside of Manning, South Carolina, four men affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan worked together to burn down
Macedonia Baptist Church Macedonia Baptist Church may refer to: * Macedonia Baptist Church (Denver, Colorado), listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) * Macedonia Baptist Church (Holden, Louisiana), listed on the NRHP in Louisiana * Macedonia Baptist ...
and Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church of Greeleyville, both majority black churches. Criminal convictions were obtained. In a 1998 civil suit, Grand Dragon Horace King and four other Klansmen, together with Klan organisations, were sued for $37.8 million for their roles, and amount reduced on appeal. * 1995 August 15 St. John Baptist Church in Lexington County, South Carolina, was burned and an arrest was made. * 1995 October 31 Mount Pisgah Baptist Church of Raeford, North Carolina, was burned. * 1995 December 22 Mount Zion Baptist Church of Boligee, Alabama, was burned. * 1995 December 30 Salem Baptist Church in Gibson County, Tennessee, was burned. * 1996 January 6 Ohovah African Methodist Episcopal Church of Orrum, North Carolina, was burned and an arrest was made. * 1996 January 8 Inner City Church of Knoxville, Tennessee, was burned. * 1996 January 11 Little Zion Baptist Church and Mount Zoar Baptist Church of Green County, Alabama, were both burned on the same day. * 1996 February 1 Cypress Grove Baptist Church, St. Paul's Free Baptist Church, and Thomas Chapel Benevolent Society of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were all burned on the same day. * 1996 February 1 Sweet Home Baptist Church in Baker, Louisiana, was burned. * 1996 February 21 Glorious Church of God in Christ of Richmond, Virginia, was burned. * 1996 February 28 New Liberty Baptist Church in Tyler, Alabama, was burned and an arrest was made. * 1996 March 5 St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Hatley, Mississippi, was burned. * 1996 March 20 New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Ruleville, Mississippi, was burned. * 1996 March 27 Gay's Hill Baptist Church of Millen, Georgia, was burned. * 1996 March 30 El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church of Satartia, Mississippi, was burned and an arrest was made. * 1996 March 31 Butler Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Orangeburg, South Carolina, was burned. * 1996 April 11 St. Charles Baptist Church in Paincourtville, Louisiana, was burned. * 1996 April 13 Rosemary Baptist Church in Barnwell, South Carolina, was burned. * 1996 April 26 Effingham Baptist Church in Effingham, South Carolina, was burned. * 1996 May 14 Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Tigrett, Tennessee, was burned. * 1996 May 23 Mount Tabor Baptist Church in Cerro Gordo, North Carolina, was burned. * 1996 May 24 Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Lumberton, North Carolina, was burned. * 1996 June 3 Rising Star Baptist Church in Greensboro, Alabama, was burned. * 1996 June 7 Matthews Murkland Presbyterian Church sanctuary in Charlotte, North Carolina, was burned and an arrest was made. * 1996 June 9 New Light House of Prayer and The Church of the Living God, both of Greenville, Texas, were burned on the same day. * 1996 June 12 Evangelist Temple on Marianna, Florida, was burned. * 1996 June 13 First Missionary Baptist Church of Enid, Oklahoma, was burned and an arrest was made. * 1996 June 17 Hills Chapel Baptist Church, Rocky Point, North Carolina, is burned. * 1996 June 17 Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church and Central Grove Missionary Baptist Church, both of Kossuth, Mississippi, were burned on the same day. * 1996 June 20 Immanuel Christian Fellowship of Portland, Oregon, was burned. * 1996 June 24 New Birth Temple Church of Shreveport, Louisiana, was burned.


21st century


2001–2010

* 2006 July 11 A cross was burned outside a predominantly black church in Richmond, Virginia * 2008 November 5 Macedonia Church of God in Christ, in Springfield, Massachusetts, was burned down and an arrest was made. * 2010 December 28 In Crane, Texas, the Faith in Christ Church was vandalized with "racist and threatening graffiti" and then firebombed by a man who was attempting to gain entry into the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas; an arrest was made and the perpetrator was found guilty and sentenced to 37 years in prison.


2011–present

* 2014 November 24 The Flood Christian Church in Ferguson, Missouri, was burned by arsonists during a series of protests over the police shooting of Michael Brown, Jr. Michael Brown Sr. had been baptized at the church a week before the fire. While other buildings in Ferguson were burned that night, the church was some distance from the protests, and buildings nearby were not damaged; investigators also found signs of forced entry at the church. Members of the congregation believed it had been a targeted attack, motivated by Pastor Carlton Lee's calls for Officer Darren Wilson's arrest and his participation in
Al Sharpton Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
's
National Action Network The National Action Network (NAN) is a not-for-profit, civil rights organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City, New York, in early 1991. In a 2016 profile, '' Vanity Fair'' called Sharpton "arguably the country's most infl ...
. Pastor Lee died of an apparent heart attack in 2017, at the age of 34. * 2015 June 17 At
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This, ...
in Charleston, South Carolina, 10 African Americans, including
Clementa C. Pinckney Clementa Carlos "Clem" Pinckney (July 30, 1973 – June 17, 2015) was an American politician and pastor who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 45th District from 2000 until his death in 2015. He was ...
, member of the
South Carolina Senate The South Carolina Senate is the upper house of the South Carolina General Assembly, the lower house being the South Carolina House of Representatives. It consists of 46 senators elected from single member districts for four-year terms at the sa ...
, were shot in a mass attack; nine were killed.
White supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
and
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
Dylann Roof Dylann Storm Roof (born April 3, 1994) is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and mass murderer convicted of perpetrating the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. During a Bible study at Emanue ...
pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences without parole. * 2015 June 22 At College Hill Seventh Day Adventist, in
Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...
, Tennessee, a small fire was set, resulting in minimal damage to the church structure and destruction of the church van. The act was not classified as a hate crime. * 2015 June 23 God's Power Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia, was gutted by a fire which was ruled arson. * 2015 June 24 At Briar Creek Baptist Church in
Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...
, North Carolina, an unknown arsonist started a three-alarm fire, causing more than $250,000 in damages. * 2016 November 1 The 111-year-old Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, was burned and vandalized with the words "Vote Trump" spray-painted onto the building. The arsonist, a black man who was a member of the church, pled guilty in March 2019. * 2019 March 26 St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre, Louisiana. This was the first in a series of three historically black churches over 100 years old, burned within a span of 10 days. Holden Matthews, 21, the son of a
St. Landry Parish St. Landry Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Landry) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 83,384. The parish seat is Opelousas. The parish was established in 1807. St. Landry Parish co ...
sheriff's deputy, was charged with the arson attack. Matthews reportedly was not motivated by race but rather by anti-Christian animus and a desire to promote himself as a
black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
musician in the mold of
Varg Vikernes Louis Cachet (born Kristian Vikernes; 11 February 1973), better known as Varg Vikernes (), is a Norwegian writer and retired musician best known for his early black metal albums and later crimes. His first five records, issued under the name Bur ...
, who committed a similar series of church burnings in 1990s Norway. On November 2, 2020, Matthews was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay the churches $2.6 million. * 2019 April 2
Greater Union Baptist Church Greater Union Baptist Church is a historic church located in Chicago's Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side. Built in 1886 and designed by the father of the skyscraper, William Le Baron Jenney, in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, the building ...
in
Opelousas :''Opelousas is also a common name of the flathead catfish.'' Opelousas (french: Les Opélousas; Spanish: ''Los Opeluzás'') is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were ...
, Louisiana. Holden Matthews was charged with the arson attack. * 2019 April 4 Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas, Louisiana. Holden Matthews was charged with the arson attack. * 2022 November 8 Two churches, Greater Bethlehem Temple Church and Epiphany Church, in Jackson, Mississippi were burned overnight. Both fires, in addition to 5 others set the same night, were deemed the work of an arsonist.


References


Notes


Story Map: Mapping Violence Against African American Churches
* * * *


Further reading

* Houdek, Matthew. "Racial sedimentation and the common sense of racialized violence: The case of black church burnings." ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'' 104.3 (2018): 279-306. * Howell, Frank M., et al. "When faith, race, and hate collide: Religious ecology, local hate cultures, and church burnings." ''Review of Religious Research'' 60.2 (2018): 223-245. * Johnson, Jajuan. "An Interview with Elmer Beard: Remembrances of Black Activism, Communal Solidarity, and the Burning of Roanoke Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas." ''Ethnohistory '' 69.1 (2022): 101-108. * Jones, Doug. ''Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights'' (2019). * McCarthy, Timothy Patrick. "A Test of Faith Black Church Burnings and America's Enduring Crucible of 'Race'." ''Souls'' 8.1 (2006): 12-26. * Soule, Sarah A., and Nella Van Dyke. "Black church arson in the United States, 1989-1996." ''Ethnic and Racial Studies'' 22.4 (1999): 724-742. {{Massacres Churches Churches * * * United States crime-related lists African American-related lists