Panel Sheds Light On Church Burning

The burning of African-American churches by white supremacist groups may seem like an issue of the distant past, but a panel discussion at the Kennedy School of Government sought to raise awareness about the problem of church burning in contemporary society.

The discussion, called “The Fires This Time: Black Church Burnings in Contemporary America,” featured activists, scholars, and speakers whose communities had been affected by church burning.

One of the church burnings took place as recently as 2008 in Springfield, Mass. at the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, a predominantly African-American church led by Bishop Bryant Robinson Jr.

The church was allegedly burned by three young men just hours after President Obama had been elected, according to Robinson.

“Their affidavits revealed that they did it because Obama was elected President,” Robinson said.

National Coalition for Burned Churches Executive Director Executive Director Rev. Rose Johnson-Mackey said from 1995-1996, Ala. and Tenn. saw a wave of church burnings.

“Volunteer firefighters were allowing the churches to be burned to the ground,” Johnson-Mackey said.

But due to collective efforts by the communities affected and Harvard student activists, the response by local governments has grown much swifter in recent years, according to Robinson.

Johnson-Mackey also said that her organization’s involvement in these cases has helped to push the issue and put pressure on the state and federal government to acknowledge the urgency of these events.

To help encourage community leaders to work towards bringing the criminals to justice and to help rebuild the places of worship destroyed, Robinson and the other panelists started a volunteer team about a decade ago that includes many current Harvard students and alumni.

Among the crowd of at least 20 student volunteers present at the discussion, Joseph B. Gaspard ’12 was one of the student leaders on a trip to towns affected by church burning.

“It’s one of those things where you love the work that you do but you hate the fact that you do have to do it,” Gaspard said.