“Racism Blamed in Shock Wave of Church Burnings,” read the screaming headline in the New York Daily News. “The South is Burning: A Rash of Torching at Black Churches Has Resurrected the Ugly Specter of Racism,” chimed in the Toronto Star. Newsweek warned of “Terror in the Night Down South,” While USA Today reported that “Arson at Black Churches Echoes Bigotry of Past.”(Fumento 1) In the summer of 1996, the U.S. media widely reported a surge in white racist burnings of black churches in the American South. It all started the Center for Democratic Renewal announced a huge increase in arsons against black churches by whites. Black churches were burning at the rate of one per week, mostly due to arson (Swett 2). The media jumped on the story.
The racial church burnings soon became issues of Politicians. President Bill Clinton was running for re-election and desperately needed the votes of the black communities. Clinton made the discrimination issue a priority. Clinton held a White House summit on the issue and assigned the FBI to investigate. Eventually, he passed a law authorizing 12 million dollars to fight arsons of churches. During a passionate speech President Clinton shared that he had, “vivid and painful memories of black churches being burned in my own state when I was a child.” Ironically, historians and civil rights activists in Arkansas could find no mention of any church arsons in the state during his childhood. Furthermore, Al Gore was quoted “For a very large number of the burnings, what you will find ultimately, I predict, is that a common thread of underlying racism is present.”(Elven 2)
“The church burnings had all the makings of a great story: mystery, race, religion and an eerie echo of the past.”(Heyboer 1). Michael Fumento a journalist for the Wall Street Journal wrote, “It appears that the public may be finally catching on that the black church burning epidemic of 1996 is actually one of the biggest hoaxes to come along in years.” In fact, independent investigations by several reporters, including those at the Associated press, The New Yorker and USA Today have revealed no plague and little evidence of racism. Michael Kelly, reported that fires at churches both white and black had sharply decreased since 1980, and that the overall number in 1994 was the lowest in fifteen years. Kelly explains the rise in church burnings was impart because of copycat arsons who may have been racist but who also had been inspired by the media attention given to the fires.
In President Barack Obama’s eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney and others who died in the Charleston Church Shooting, delivered on June 26, 2015 at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, he commemorates Reverend Pinckney and at the same time advocates for his own political agenda. President Obama shifts between black and presidential registers, weaves the ideas of grace, sight, and blindness throughout the speech, and cultivates his ethos to better connect with his audience, the American people, not only African Americans or Christians. President Obama addresses the American public during this racially charged time in order to remember the lives lost during the shooting, to promote his political views, and to unify the all Americans.
Dr. A. Charles Ware describes the recent misuse of scriptures that had been used to support and propagate racism. He brings them into the light while taking an honest look at the churches as well which reveals that racism isn’t limited to just evolutionists. The Ku Klux Klan, a group that identifies their organization as being a group of Christians with great moral and good Christian behavior, has brought terror and agony for the minority groups of the United State. An overview on genetics, natural selection, and the theory of evolution gives scientific facts while providing biblical truths that proves that we are all One Race One
Martin Luther King Jr. uses the rhetorical appeal of Logos to provide a sense of logic and reason within his letter. When he is accused of resorting to demonstrations rather than attempting negotiations King provides his four step plan to a successful nonviolent campaign, listing direct action as the final step and negotiations as the second. This point peacefully refutes the clergymen’s accusations and does not provoke a new argument. King also uses facts to prove a point such as, “There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than and city in the nation.” (King, ¶-5) This quotation validates King’s reasoning to be in Birmingham for demonstrations and not just negotiation.
When I first heard the term sundown town I had no idea what it meant. I interviewed my parents (Schmitz) who were married in the 50’s. Neither of them could recall hearing the term sundown town at any time between the fifties and the seventies. My father did remember hearing stories about how blacks were not allowed in some cities, but neither of them had experienced any encounters personally. When I was a sophomore in high school the first black family moved into a house just outside of Plymouth, where I grew up, and I recall my parents telling us that we should “stay away from their kind”, as a teenager I did not pay much attention, the children were younger than I was, I certainly did not have any reason to seek them out, so I didn’t. I do always remember that conversation with my parents, mostly because I did not quite understand why we should stay away from them. After graduation I moved to Appleton to attend school, this was my first personal experience with a person of color. One of my classmates happened to be black, his name was Mikel and we became fri...
One can witness the more attractive face of Southern religion in several areas. Religion was an important part of the lives of the Chandlers and of Black Oak, Arkansas. The center of the Chandler devotion was the Black Oak Baptist Church, and nothing was more important besides the family and the farm than church. “There was more to Sunday church
Lacking the ready opportunity to visit a unique congregation while stuck, carless, on campus over break, I instead focus on a "field trip" that my churchs' Sunday School class took one Sunday morning last summer. Picture if you will a group of white Presbyterian teenagers hopping into a shiny church van and cruising 15 minutes south, into the poorer, blacker reaches of inner-city Memphis (where neighborhood segregation is still very much the rule). Our destination was relatively near our own church, and yet worlds apart, too. Ours was the area of stately old homes with well-kept lawns along oak- and elm-lined streets, homes filled with the genteel, white urbanites of the city. A mere handful of blocks to the south, however, lay a land of equally old but far more poorly maintained homes, streets long since denuded of any trees they may once have sported. We had left our comfortable zone of neighborhood watches and block clubs, choosing instead to spend our worship hours in a part of the city instead known for its special police precinct and its multitudinous economic redevelopment zones. Thus did we find ourselves at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.
Eight Alabama clergymen made a public statement directed towards Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. containing many criticisms against the civil rights movement. The criticisms were as follows: (1) The issue of race relations should be handled by local leaders instead of “outsiders” like himself. (2) Pressing the court and negotiation among local leaders is a better path. (3) The Negro community should be more patient, for the workings of the legal system take time. (4) The demonstrations are “unwise and untimely.” (5) The methods used by demonstrators are extreme and (6) If it weren’t for the police, your demonstrations would have turned violent. As a result, King, while imprisoned in the Birmingham City Jail, wrote them a lengthy letter that refuted all of the aforementioned criticisms and then proceeded to express his disappointment in them for saying such things. Through his skillful use of diction, anaphoras, rhetorical appeals, and syntax, King successfully achieves his purposes: to refute claims made by the eight clergymen while justifying his reasons for the demonstrations he lead and to encourage the clergymen to join his cause.
First, Lemann documents horrible accounts of violence against freed blacks. The casual observer views the underlying reasons for these attacks as simple racial hatred. However, Lemann connects the acts of violence to show an orchestrated movement intended to undermine both keys to the freed blacks’ quality of life, organizing abilities and voting rights. Violence against blacks existed for years, but in the form of a master supposedly disciplining his slave. The acts of violence outlined by Lemann show a shift from fear and ignorance to organized intimidation. After all, whites of the time viewed themselves “as protectors of [the] natural order” meaning racial superiority (65). What first started as a fear of being the minority turned quickly to a fear of losing political power and economic wealth. In the end, the use of violence all...
The sight of women jumping out of a building, due to a lack of fire escapes and locked doors, resonated with the American public. Across the country reporters and every day citizens questioned the business practices in place, and waited to see who would be to blame for such a terrible incident. Headlines of leading newspapers such as William Hearst’s the American read, “City Officials Blamed For Fire Tragedy,” and he devoted several days of front-page stories to this event. (Von Drehle, 187). Angry citizens took notice, and reform subsequently began.
In Praying for Sheetrock, Thurnell Alston was the first black commissioner in the McIntosh county, but the power was to much for him to handle and he turned corrupt just like the other politicians in the justice system and it was his own fault that he let the power get to him and it had nothing to do with racism, ‘“I don’t know what happened to Thurnell,” said Gay Jacobs. “I really don’t. It seemed as though power, or lust for power, or something changed him. And it’s a very heady thing, and it happens to everybody. It’s not anything to do with the races. That sort of thing has no regard for race”’ (Green, 1991). According to the book Antidiscrimination law and minority employment, Minority citizens will be more likely than whites to be arrested for even minor infractions and to suffer the labor market consequences. The reason why minorities have a higher chance to be arrested is because of the stereotypes and discrimination placed on these groups, which makes them at higher risk to become incarcerated. Although people believe that minorities at fault themselves, it is important to be open to see the change in other
From the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1981, at least twenty-eight people were abducted and killed during a murder spree in Atlanta, Georgia; these killings would come to be known as the Atlanta Child Murders. While the victims of the killings were people of all races and genders, most of the victims of the Atlanta Child Murders were young African-American males. These murders created great racial tension in the city of Atlanta, with its black population believing the murders to be the work of a white supremacist group. (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. l) However, when police finally apprehended a suspect in the case, they found it was neither a white supremacy group, nor a white person at all; it was a 23 year-old African-American man named Wayne Williams. (“What are”, n.d.)
The phenomenon of ‘White flight’ became ever more drastic after the Watts riots were spread over every newspaper and television broadcast. Data shows a definite increase in the amount of Whites moving out of cities with a relatively high Black population, as well as declining property values in those same cities afterwards. While the Civil Right Movement gained even more traction after the Watts riots, even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Black population had still any direct results other than years later when a Black workforce started to come into being. Strain theory seems to be relevant when analyzing any Black riots, as many consist of Blacks looting and burning community stores and, in some cases, destroying their own homes and neighborhoods as well, and applying strain theory would seem to imply that Blacks having nothing to lose by doing so. Opinion polls since the era show sudden change in White opinion on Blacks, especially when looking at the approval ratings of interracial marriage. In 1958, only 4% of Americans approved of interracial marriage, which seems to support that the Watts riots, while accelerating some aspects of the Civil Rights Movement, seems to have created an image in the back of the mind of American citizens of an unruly Black
Crusading, much like Imperialism in the 20th century, was all about expansion. During the middle ages however, it was more about the expansion of religion rather then power, or at least that’s the way it was preached. Crusading by definition is; “ a holy war authorized by the pope, who proclaimed it in the name of god of Christ. It was believed to be Christ’s own enterprise, legitimized by his personal mandate” (1). This essay examines the background of the crusades to offer a better understanding as to why they occurred. It also examines the effects that the crusades had on the world. It is easy to look at the crusades as a violent meaningless act, but one must understand the type of setting this movement occurred during. This was a time when if you took part in the crusades, you were seen as a warrior of god, recruited by the pope. Any man who fought in the name of god would be rewarded in heaven. Popular belief in the 10th and 11th centuries was that the more you did for god, the less accountable you were for you’re past sins. The more deeds you did, the better your credit in the ‘Treasury of God’ (2). The Treasury of God is a summarization of the good deed outweighing the bad deed principle of the time. Acts of violence in the name of god are far less common in the world today. But, as seen with September 11th, jihad or holy war is still occurring. This essay gives a basic timeline and underlying principles behind the crusading missions. Justification for these acts remains unclear and is simply opinion based.
The Mississippi burnings were nothing but an old fashioned lynching. Hidden and disguised by the help of county officials, this case was overlooked and un-trialed. Nothing was done and three innocent men lost their lives.
"Barn Burning" is a sad story because it very clearly shows the classical struggle between the "privileged" and the "underprivileged" classes. Time after time emotions of despair surface from both the protagonist and the antagonist involved in the story.