By: Rene Childress

The White Slavocracy established itself on these shores in 1619 with a bible in its hand. They shoved that same bible down the throats of their newly enslaved charges. It was used to maintain their hold on to the property relations that became a cornerstone of American culture and psyche. 

The white enslavers didn’t realize the message of uplift and perseverance in Christianity would galvanize and shape itself into a resistance against tyranny. The same message that encouraged the Israelites to rebel against the Pharaohs and the Christians against  the Romans inspired black slaves to resist the reign of slavery.   Once the slaves began gathering to worship, a kernel of hope and determination for a better future burst forth from their loins. 

It offered redemption and solace. Slaves began to believe that they did indeed have souls and value beyond the monetary constraints of slavery. This conundrum would make the Black church a target of racial terror again and again well into the twenty first century. Literally hundreds upon hundreds of Black  churches have been destroyed and vandalized  over the centuries. 

The first recorded attacks on Black Churches occurred at Emanuel African Episcopal Church in Charleston South Carolina. The very first Black Church founded in the Southern United States. The year was 1816. 

The church quickly became a place where slaves could gather and worship freely and pray for the end of their oppressive conditions under white slavery. The White officials of Charleston took offense that their property would seek solace and the promise of a future without the lash and rape.  In its infancy the good White officials  decided to disrupt and raid the church taking into custody more than 140 individuals. 

They were subsequently forced to pay fines and endure lashes.The church was harrassed twice more in the the years 1820 and 1821 with similar results.  Finally in 1822 a White mob torched the church and executed 35 men. 

The parishioners of Mother Emanuel would meet in secret like the christians during the Roman Empire.( It is interesting to note that Christianity was considered a subversive  philosophy by the Romans.) Sounds familiar. Mother Emanuel would not be rebuilt until after the end of the Civil War.

This was to become the  harbinger of a future filled with tears and terror for Black Christians across the whole of America both north and south. Hundreds and hundreds of Black Churches would fall under the weight of this reign of  tyranny. Starting in 1825 the Black Christians were endlessly put upon and their churches were torched. 

Between the years of 1825 and 1850 the Black Philadelphia community would suffer six separate desecrations of their places of worship. In 1829 the White racist citizens of Cincinnati tore through the Black sections destroying churches, schools and black places of business. The burning and destruction of Black Churches was initially a truly Northern occurrence because during the pre-Civil War era  Southern whites didn’t allow Blacks to have organized relations of any sort for fear of rebellion and retribution that might come from such. 

So it would become a national pandemic that would arise to keep both free Black people and enslaved Black people under the control of the greater White populace. Churches offered a separate place not in the purview or supervision of the Whites where Blacks could express themselves unmolested. 

This scourge of Black Church desecration would flow down through the ages.  More than eight hundred Black churches have been destroyed over a two hundred and forty  year period. Starting in 1822 and continuing well into the twenty-first century. 

In one period stretching from 1990 to 1999 over 487 Black Churches were targets of arson. Not all were successful. The ”Roll Call” includes churches large and small, famous and nondescript, urban and rural. It would encompass places like the great cities of Philadelphia and New York to the hills, valleys and dales of the rural hinterland. 

No place was too small or too large. It was an American experience. The list is too voluminous to share in this humble and limited space. I will share a few examples across the centuries to illustrate the breadth and depth of this unspeakable thing:

1866 First Baptist Church Petersburg,Virginia

1868 Union Missionary Baptist Church Jefferson, Texas

1909 Carswell Baptist Church Millen, Georgia

1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma 17 Churches

1949 Birmingham, Alabama( Parsonage dynamited)

1955 St,James AME Lake City, South Carolina

1957 Allen Temple, Bessemer, Alabama

1958 Bethel Baptist Church Birmingham,Alabama

1962 St.Matthew”s Baptist Church, Macon,Georgia

1972 Carterville Baptist Church Reston,Virginia

1979 Second Wilson Church of Chester, Chester,South Carolina.

1993 Rocky Point Missionary Baptist Church Pike County, Miss

2008 Macedonia Church of God In Christ, Springfield ,Massachusetts 

2019 Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Opelousas, Louisiana

This is just a brief snapshot and is by no means the total number of churches that have been destroyed. This characteristic of American White Supremacy grew so dramatically that the Clinton Administration was forced to establish the National Church Arson Task Force (NCATF). The result was the investigation of 297 acts of arson in 1996, 208 incidents in 1997 and 114 in 1998. 

The numbers began to dramatically decrease under the scrutiny of the Federal Government. The local governments were either complicit or severely disinterested in solving these local crimes. The twenty-first century has had its share of Church burnings and mayhem. The pace has slowed but arsonists have still been active as late 2019. 

We continue to bury our heads in the sands of platitudes and slogans while there are amongst our fellow citizens, a growing monster whose thirst and hunger can only be quenched by racial terrorism. Let us remember how we got here. It was the original sin of slavery and all that it entailed. 

Down through the ages we have beaten back the vestiges of slavery and “Jim Crow”. It periodically raises its head. We as a nation have chosen most times to beat back this monster. 

Let us not kid ourselves, we are in one of those times. Let us go forward and protect all places of worship. State and local governments must do a better job at enforcing the laws of their states when it comes to protecting its Black Citizens and their institutions. This has been a truly awful story to write. It almost seems unimaginable that the sanctity of churches could be an issue in a so-called Civil Nation.  “LET’S NOT FORGET”