Since January 1995, more than a hundred churches with primarily black congregations have been burned. Most of the churches were in South. The burnings touch off a humanitarian outpouring of support to rebuild. President Clinton witnesses one such effort in Greelyville, South Carolina. He told the congregation that rebuilding the false idols of hatred and division did not win.
Federal authorities investigate the rash of burnings.
But the federal investigation angered some black church leaders. One pastor said the investigations have turned into interrogations. The federal probe would find that many of the black churches were burned by people trying to conceal burglaries or by people who had troubled relationships with church officials. Federal investigators found no evidence of a national or regional conspiracy to set the fires. Copyright 1996 Associated Press.