4 Whites Accused of Torching Home of Blacks in Philly
The FBI arrested four white men today for allegedly torching the home of a black couple who had fled a predominantly white neighborhood after nights of rowdy racial protests.
Vincent Callahan, 20, Thomas O’Donnell, 22, George Stewart, 25, and an 18-year-old man, all from Southwest Philadelphia, were charged with violating the civil rights of others and burning their home. Officials said one of the suspects was cooperating in the investigation.
The arrests came less than a week after Mayor Wilson Goode lifted a state of emergency in the middle-class Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood where hundreds of whites held two noisy demonstrations in November outside the homes of the black family and an interracial couple. The fire destroyed the first floor of a house owned by the Veterans Administration and occupied by the black family.
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