Fire on the Cross
In 1996, in an investigation of the burning of churches in the southern United States, Freedom uncovered evidence of disastrous negligence on the part of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in its handling of the arsons.
Official probes of the fires dragged on for months, with tight-lipped federal investigators refusing in some cases to tell the victims anything. Some pastors and church elders were served with federal grand jury subpoenas and questioned with the stinging indication that they had possibly burned their own churches. Evidence of the nature and extent of insurance coverage made this a virtual impossibility, not to mention that in virtually all cases, the clergy and congregations were dedicatedly rebuilding their churches.
In seeking to understand why the arms of justice were crossed, Freedom found and exposed damning evidence of prejudice among ATF members—including documented accounts of ATF agents’ involvement in white racist gatherings.
Through the concerted pressure of media, religions, justice groups and others, by late 1996, investigations into the fire bombings were inching forward, prompting Dr. Arthur A. Fletcher, former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to tell Freedom: “This seems to be the darkest hour before the sunshine. The church [arsons] are going to cause religions to join forces. We can expect to see a giant step in terms of the religious community coming together to reduce discrimination to insignificance.”
So long as vigilance is continually exercised, it is likely that this will come to pass, as it has progressively throughout history—strengthening the First Amendment and making America safer for religious minorities.
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