Another Black Church in Flames

[Content Note: Terrorism; arson; white supremacy.]

On Monday, I wrote about six churches with predominantly black congregations that had erupted in flames since the AME Shooting. At least three of them were being officially investigated as arson.

Last night, Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, South Carolina, located about an hour away from Charleston, was also set ablaze. Officials have not yet confirmed whether it was arson. But Mount Zion AME was torched by the KKK in 1995.

According to WACH Fox 57, [Mount Zion AME] burned well into the evening as two fire crews from different counties battled to get the flames under control. The news station noted that at one point the flames could be seen shooting through the roof of the more than 100 year old church.

Williamsburg County Sheriff Dudley Musier told the news station that the fire started around 8:35 p.m. Tuesday.

"We're going to continue to investigate what caused this fire. Right now, it's still fresh; we don't know what caused it," Musier told WACH.

...Tuesday's fire isn't the first time that the church and the community has had to deal with a costly blaze. On June 20, 1995, two former members of the KKK set Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church on fire the Post reports. The church was rebuilt and reopened in 1996. Then president, Bill Clinton, toured the newly rebuilt church and presented Mt. Zion pastor Terrance G. Mackey with a plaque that read, "we must come together as one America to rebuild our churches, restore hope, and show the forces of hatred they cannot win," the Post reports.

At Heavy: "Mt Zion AME Church Fire: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know."

Already, there is an "anonymous federal law enforcement source" telling media this was not arson, despite the fact that the investigation is just getting underway.

And the mainstream media coverage of this fire, no less within the context of six other fires at black churches since a white supremacist killed nine black women and men at a black church, is virtually nonexistent. Juxtapose that, as many people have observed on Twitter, with the coverage of the CVS set ablaze during protests in Baltimore, which was given wall-to-wall coverage by the cable news networks.

In the 1990s, there was a similar spate of black church burnings. Thirty-seven black churches were burned before then-President Bill Clinton requested from Congress an extra $12 million for investigations. That series of church burnings is still discussed as a "hoax" by conservatives.

The mainstream media needs to cover this, and the investigations need to be transparent.

This latest fire is not an isolated incident, and it's not happening in a vacuum. It defies credulity that seven black churches would all coincidentally burn in accidents, because of bad electrical wiring or lightning, in the weeks following a white supremacist mass murder at a black church.

My condolences to the congregants of Mount Zion AME and all the other churches which have been damaged. And to all the black parishioners at black churches who don't feel safe today.