Update, June 29, 11 a.m. PT: Fires have been reported at six black churches in five southern states since the mass shooting in Charleston. Two of the fires are thought to have been from electrical or other unintentional causes, but at least two other are being investigated as arson. (See timeline below.) According to BuzzFeed, the FBI and ATF are investigating the incidents. For more, including an interview with a pastor at a church that burned in South Carolina, see this NPR story.
Churches have long been hubs of organizing and advocacy in the black community, which was one reason they were so often attacked during the civil rights movement. But the violence didn’t end there—attacks and threats against black churches and institutions still take place at a greater frequency than you might think. Here is a partial list of church incidents in the past two decades alone:
| 1996 |
January 8: Eighteen Molotov cocktails are thrown at Inner City Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. The phrases, “Die N—– Die” and “White is Right” are painted on the church’s back door. 
Rep. Larry Hill looks over the remains of Matthews-Murkland Presbyterian Church. Chuck Barton/AP Photo
January 11: Mount Zoar Baptist Church and Little Zion Baptist Church, two black churches within six miles of each other, are burned to the ground on the same night in rural Alabama. February 8: The Department of Justice launches an investigation into a string of arsons at black churches in rural Tennessee and Alabama. June 7: Matthews-Murkland Presbyterian Church is set on fire in Charlotte, North Carolina. |
| 1997 |
March 22: Two men burn down Macedonia Baptist Church in Ferris, Texas. Asked why they did it, according to the US Attorney General’s Office, one of the men responded, “because it was a n—– church.” June 30: Five white men and women, all between the ages of 18 and 21, burn down St. Joe Baptist Church, a small church of 21 worshippers in Little River, Alabama. |
| 2004 |
January 12: Two white men in Roanoke, Virginia, cause $77,000 worth of damage to the inside of Mount Moriah Baptist Church after breaking into and vandalizing the premises. |
| 2006 |
July 11: A cross is burned outside a predominantly black church in Richmond, Virginia. |
| 2008 |
Firefighters work at the scene of a fire at the Macedonia Church of God in Christ. Mark M. Murray/AP Photo
November 5: The morning after President Obama’s first election, three white men set alight Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Massachusetts. The church was under construction. |
| 2010 |
December 28: A white man firebombs Faith in Christ Church in Crane, Texas, in an attempt to “gain status” with the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist gang. |
| 2011 |
June 23: The FBI investigates a cross burning on the lawn of St. John’s Baptist Church in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. November 17: Vandals break into Cedar Hill AME Zion Church in Ansonville, North Carolina. They throw chairs through the stained glass windows, burn a cross, defecate on an alter, and dig up the tombstone of a child buried in the church’s historic slave cemetery. |
| 2013 |
February 25: Vandals break into a day care center housed within a church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; spray paint swastikas on the inside; and set the building alight. One church member said that, several weeks earlier, the church had received a call saying, “We need these n—– to get out of here.” |
| 2014 |
Members of the destroyed Flood Christian Church hold service in a tent in Country Club Hill, Missouri. J.B Forbes/AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch
November 26: Federal officials open an investigation into the arson of Flood Christian Church, the church attended by Michael Brown Sr., the father of Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The fire was set the same night the prosecutor in the case announced he would not bring charges against officer Darren Wilson for killing Brown. July 22: A cross is burned in the parking lot of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee. |
| 2015 |
Worshippers embrace following a group prayer across the street from the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. David Goldman/AP Photo
June 17: Dylann Roof kills nine people at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. June 24: Briar Creek Road Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., went up in flames in the early morning. A wing of the church used as an education center was nearly completely destroyed, and the sanctuary and gymnasium sustained extensive smoke damage, with damages totaling an estimated $250,000. The fire is being investigated as arson. June 28: Bales of hay and bags of dirt were set on fire and left against the front doors of College Hill Seventh Day Adventist church in Knoxville, T.N. Separately, a church van was also set on fire and destroyed. The fires are being investigated as arson.
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