Groups Seek to Stem Arson at Churches

In response to black church burnings across the country, a broad coalition of Los Angeles churches, community leaders and civil rights organizations announced Friday that they are stepping up their efforts to heighten community awareness of the crisis.

“We must never be complacent with evil,” said Genethia Hayes, interim executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Los Angeles. “This sort of act strikes at the very heart of our community. We cannot sit back in silence.”

Starting today, synagogues and churches will hold special prayer sessions, hand out literature about the fires and ask members to contribute funds to help rebuild the destroyed structures in the South. The activities are part of a campaign called “From Ashes to Action: L.A.’s Response to Black Church Burnings in America.”

Los Angeles Fire Department officials say they also are setting up a task force to look into any local acts of church vandalism that appear to have racial undertones.

“We want to send a message that this sort of act will not be tolerated in Los Angeles,” said Roger Gillis, the department’s community liaison officer. “We will make our presence more known in the community.”

Gillis said the Fire Department is setting up a hotline that people can call if they notice suspicious activity around churches. Authorities also plan to help neighborhoods form watch groups.

Friday’s announcement comes in the wake of a rash of fires at black churches across the country. During the last 18 months, more than 100 churches have been destroyed by arson in 35 states.

Federal authorities have investigated 216 church fires in the last six years, more than half of them in the last 18 months, according to a U.S. Justice Department report. Of those, 70% occurred in black churches in the Southeast.

Fire Department officials say there have been at least three racially motivated arson incidents among 36 suspicious fires in Los Angeles churches since 1990.

“We’re standing in solidarity for the churches that have been destroyed,” said Rev. Norman Johnson, pastor of First New Christian Fellowship Baptist Church. “We’re trying to raise consciousness and develop some preventive strategies for Los Angeles.”