Lanterna Rally

Author: United States; Congress; Hous Judiciary

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-18

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781331719397

Excerpt from Church Fires in the Southeast: Hearing Before Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, Second Session, May 21, 1996 The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:40 a.m., in room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry J. Hyde (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Representatives Henry J. Hyde, Bill McCollum, George W. Gekas, Howard Coble, Steven Schiff, Bob Goodlatte, Fred Heineman, Ed Bryant of Tennessee, Steve Chabot, Bob Barr, John Conyers, Jr., Barney Frank, Robert C. Scott, Xavier Becerra, Zoe Lofgren, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Maxine Waters. Also present: Alan F. Coffey, Jr., general counsel/staff director; Diana Schacht, deputy general counsel; Kathryn A. Hazeem, chief counsel; Nicole Robilolto, assistant counsel; Kenny Prater, clerk; Julian Epstein, minority staff director; Perry Apelbaum, minority general counsel; Melanie Sloan, minority counsel; and Tom Diaz, minority counsel. Opening Statement of Chairman Hyde Mr. Hyde. The committee will come to order. This morning the House Judiciary Committee turns its attention to a very disturbing development in our Nation, that of the large number of church fires that have occurred in recent months. The trend is particularly troubling because of the number of African-American churches that have fallen victim to these burnings. This year alone there have been 21 church fires involving African-American churches. In 1995, six such incidents were reported and investigated by Federal law enforcement officials. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Civil Rights Division, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are actively involved in these investigations. Law enforcement task forces are made up of Federal, State, and local authorities and they've been established in a number of these cases, and over 200 Federal investigators are actively involved at this time. Most of these incidents have occurred in Southern States: Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Virginia, and Louisiana. But suspicious incidents involving African-American churches are also being investigated in New Jersey and Arizona. It's unclear how many of these fires actually were arson, and it also is unclear how many were racially motivated. To date, there is no evidence of a national conspiracy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.