Hopewell M.B. Church in Greenville, Mississippi, was set on fire and vandalized late Tuesday evening. The words “vote Trump” were spray painted on the outside of the building. The FBI is investigating the incident as a hate crime. No suspects are in custody yet but a person of interest is being interviewed. A GoFundMe account to help repair the church has raised more than $14,000 as of this writing, surpassing its goal of $10,000.
Freddie Cannon, the Greenville police chief, has called the incident a "a form of voting intimidation." Black churches have historically served as more than places of worship for black communities. They provided meeting space for rallies and strategy sessions during the Civil Rights Movement and were points of social as well as spiritual nourishment.
It is too early to tell if the crime was actually carried out by Trump supporters or was a hoax, but the current climate in the country makes such destruction more than plausible … it makes such an event actually seem overdue.
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