Cross Burnings

Cross Burnings

Imagine feeling extremely relaxed and comfortable. You have just tucked your children in for bed, and you are about to retire for the evening yourself. As soon as you drift off into a peaceful sleep, “BOOM!” Your children are crying, and your entire family is startled. You go into the living room to find out a brick has been thrown through your window. Attached to the brick, is a note reading “NIGGER!” Outside of your window, you see a group of cowards hiding behind white sheets standing in your yard next to a burning cross. I encourage everyone to help prevent such hideous hate crimes.

Hate crimes such as cross burnings are resurfacing. In 1998, a Black family in Virginia Beach was the victim of this senseless act. Two white men were convicted of an attempted cross burning. The men took a cross to a black neighbor’s yard with the intention of setting it on fire. Can you imagine the anxiety and the terror brought to this innocent family?

On November 2, 2001, the Virginia Supreme court lifted the state’s forty-nine year old ban on cross burning. The court ruled that cross burning is a form of symbolic expression protected by the First Amendment. It was a four to three decision that the 1952 statue unfairly discriminated against a particular symbol and viewpoint. According to Justice Donald W. Lemons, “Under our system of government, people have the right to use symbols to communicate. They may patriotically wave the flag or burn it in protest; they may worship the cross or burn it as an expression of bigotry.” Leroy R. Hassell, Sr., the only black justice, and two of his colleagues opposed this view, arguing that the law did not infringe upon protected speech. Hassell commented, the First Amendment does not permit a person to burn a cross in a manner that intentionally places another person in fear of bodily harm.” The Virginia Supreme Courts decision overturned the convictions of the two men who were charged in two incidents of cross burnings.

Hating another person just because of their race is not just affecting the adults, but it has a huge impact on our children. An anonymous teen responded to the Public Broadcast Stations hate crime topic via the talkback forum on their website. On November 26, 2001, the teen wrote, “why do people think it is right to kill other people because of their race?