Ku Klux Klan, hate groups attack churches across U.S.

By TONY BROWN FAIRE
The Dallas Examiner

Immediately after the election of President Barak Obama, many felt the country was going in the right direction in terms of racial relations, but attacks of terror and hatred have only intensified. Within 24 hours of his election, Nov. 5, 2008, Benjamin Haskell, Michael F. Jacques Jr. and Thomas Gleason Jr., all whom are White, set fire to the Macedonia Church of God In Christ, which is located in Springfield, Mass. According to the Boston Globe, Haskell was asked by an associate why they set fire to the church. Haskell replied, “Because it was a Black church.” A CNN report stated that on the day of the election of President Obama, a 55-year-old man by the name of Don Black, former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, stated that more than 2000 people joined his website. Statistics suggest KKK and other hate groups are gaining strength because of the election of President Barak Obama.

In the state of Texas, there have been many reported hate crimes that have occurred within the last 12 months and many more that may go unreported out of fear of the Klan or other hate groups retaliating. An alarming amount of Black churches have been targeted in Texas by the Klan and other hate groups. In May 2008, Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in the Marshall area had White KKK Power painted on its walls. Also in June of 2008, Center Hill Free Will Baptist Church of Nesbitt, Texas had KKK propaganda painted on its walls. The church is 107 years old. There have been at least four churches targeted in Texas within the last year by racial violence and intimidation.

Bob Lydia, the 1st vice-president of the Texas NAACP and a national NAACP Board Member, stated, “There is a rise in the Klan. There is a movement of folks who never had interest in the KKK until Barak Obama became President Barak Obama.” The Anti Defamation League listed over 18 known hate group activities in the state of Texas for 2008. These groups include the Klu Klux Klan; America’s Promise Ministries; Crew 38, a skin head group; Neo Nazi’s and more. On Nov. 15, 2008 and Dec. 20, 2008 paramilitary training was even conducted by the Texas Militia.”

However, Texas is not alone in racial hate group activities, because there were racially motivated acts within the last year that sprung up nationwide. On Oct. 1, 2008, in Oak Harbor, Washington, an Oak Harbor thrift store, owned by Unity Fellowship Church, was vandalized and the statue of a Black mother was decapitated. According to the Whidbey News Times, Pastor Fannie Dean has also been getting threatening letters from the KKK.

In April, the Bible Way Church in Sumter County, S.C., a predominately Black congregation of 110 people, had an upside down cross, swastikas and racial slurs painted on the church. The sheriff’s department stated it had no plans to charge anyone with a hate crime.

On May 8, in the Rapides, La. Area, a man named Jeff Duncan was arrested by the local sheriff’s department on weapons and narcotics charges after a raid on his home. At the time of his arrest, he had a Confederate flag with KKK on it, a homemade bomb, several fire arms and various types of drugs.

There is a trend across the United States of open aggression and displays of racially motivated violence toward African Americans and other minorities. According to Lydia, “This is fueled by the Skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan as well as copy cats, and the hatred is just now coming out.”

Yet these acts of racial intimidation are not only in the form of burning crosses, nooses, or swastikas. Now people had never been thought of as being racist are striking out across the nation, in places never suspected. Lydia says he is getting many reports of such activities.

“People are saying mean spirited things,” Lydia said. One such case was in Marshall. On March 20, Artabus Driver filed a lawsuit against Felderhoff Brothers Drilling Company. The complaint stated that the crew leader had distributed leaflets for the KKK and confederate flag stickers that other workers put on their hats. Driver further complained that he was not allowed to use the White workers restroom or sleep in the same quarters with them. Driver said he was concerned about his safety.

The statistics are, in fact, alarming. It appears that, as President Obama continues to reach across political, socio-economic and racial divides in the U.S., as well as around the world, the KKK and other hate groups are mobilizing across the United States.

Comment on this story.

Tony Brown Faire