SCN seeks to link together activists and organizations working to promote democratic values and organizing against prejudice and hatred. It was discovered soon afterwards that the homeless man, Billy Rembert, was killed at the hands of a marauding group of Nazi skinheads who had gotten drunk earlier at a Hitler's birthday celebration and gone a rampage through the streets of Birmingham attacking African Americans. The death of Rembert, not unlike the recent Jasper, Texas dragging death of James Byrd, rocked the heart of the Birmingham community as well as the nation. Responding to the murder, Birmingham leaders and activists met to form the Coalition Against Hate Crimes, a conglomerate of churches, synagogues, law enforcement, community groups, organizations and activists dedicated to supporting racial harmony and speaking out against the spread of hatred. Acts of hate are not option.
Violence is unacceptable.
The Coalition has since become a leading voice in promoting positive race relations in Alabama. The Coalition has consistently defied and confronted hate-violence and prejudice. Representing more than 100 community leaders, the Coalition has stood up publicly in response to the Rembert incident, the Oklahoma City bombing, the burnings of black churches in Alabama, racist vandalism, and most recently the bombing of a Birmingham women's clinic. Six years after the haunting murder of Billy Rembert, the Birmingham community has a viable interracial and interreligious coalition that stands up and speaks out against hatred. In February, for example, when a Birmingham women's abortion clinic was bombed, the Coalition Against Hate Crimes quickly released a press release, and made it clear that violence and hatred would not be tolerated and do not reflect community values.