Authorities Suspect Voter Intimidation in Burning, Vandalism of Mississippi Church
*Editor's note: In December 2016, a suspect, a member of the church, was arrested in connection with the crime, and authorities now believe the attack was not politically motivated.
Fire fighters arrived to find Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church 鈥渉eavily engulfed in flames鈥� with the words 鈥淰ote Trump鈥� spray-painted on the side of the building, according to Mayor Errick Simmons, who spoke at a press conference Wednesday morning.听
Simmons said that Tuesday鈥檚 fire is being investigated as a hate crime.
The city鈥檚 investigation is taking into account the nation鈥檚 history of attacks on black churches, according to Greenville Police Chief Delano Wilson, including those as recent as last year, when聽six Southern churches were damaged or destroyed.听
鈥淭his kind of attack happened in the 1950s, and 1960s, but it shouldn鈥檛 happen in 2016,鈥� Simmons said. 鈥淟ast night鈥檚 attack appears to be a race crime: the church has always been a symbol of the black community and a place for communication around civil rights, the same rights black communities were deprived.鈥�
The fire comes just months after the word 鈥渘-----鈥� was spray-painted onto the Greenville boat ramp, near the location of a regular interracial worship initiative.
鈥淲e feel the [spray painted] quote was an intimidation of congregants鈥� right to vote,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淭his is a predominately black church: that would definitely be a hate crime.鈥�
Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church has been in the same spot for 111 years, according to Carolyn Hudson, one of the church鈥檚 pastors. It is one of many historically black churches in Greenville, a city of聽34,000聽聽in the majority聽black region of the Mississippi Delta.
In the days leading up to the election, the city of Greenville will be placing additional patrols around all places of worship, Simmons announced.
鈥淚 see the attack as a strategy to put folks in fear,鈥� said Simmons. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e resilient people in Greenville.鈥�
