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-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the July 11, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
The Glorious Church of God in Christ was firebombed here Feb. 21. It joined the over 50 other African American churches burned in recent months in an epidemic of racist hatred and government indifference.
After the fire, church members found they faced not only the racial hatred of those who lit the fire--but also the greed of a mammoth insurance company and the racism and collusion of the government.
When the church congregation tried to get payment from the insurance company so they could rebuild, the gigantic Travelers-Aetna Property and Casualty Company canceled the policy. Aetna called the church a "risk."
Public outcry and bad publicity for the company--primarily in the local African American press--forced Aetna to reinstate the insurance and pay up. It also forced the federal government to add this church burning to its list of hate crimes to be investigated.
Rev. Maudell Dilliard, pastor of Glorious Church, acknowledged that it is taking a long time to find the cause of the fires. "It's a serious thing," she said.
Central Virginia has been the site of several other racist hate crimes directed against African American churches. The First Baptist Church in Chester was firebombed months ago. So far, federal officials have refused to place it on the list to be investigated, despite an outcry by church members and others.
More recently, on June 18, the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Charles City County was attacked. The attackers spray painted racist epithets and hate symbols on the 184-year-old church's fellowship wall.
Outrage against the desecration was widespread in the community. Many in the rural county of 6,000 people have stepped forward to help clean and restore the church.
Throughout the South, Black churches have been a target because they have been the heart of social life--and often of political organizing--in the community. Meanwhile the authorities have done nothing to stop the arson and have instead harassed pastors and others from the Black churches.
In Virginia now a giant insurance company has tried to invalidate the claim arising from the fire.
It's easy to get the impression that the rulers of this country would rather nurture the racism represented by the fires than crush it.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)