Emanuel is latest victim in history of violence against black churches
For African Americans, church violence has historic dimensions. The attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church reflects “a pattern of random, racialized violence against religious institutions,” said Valerie Cooper, associate professor of black church studies at Duke University.
Teresa Fry Brown, historiographer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said, “Persons burned churches because they thought the congregating of blacks together meant that that was a foment for some kind of revolutionary action.”
Some examples of black church violence over the years include the following.
