[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 84 (Monday, June 10, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6108-H6114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            CHURCH BURNINGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Fields] is recognized for 60 minutes.

[[Page H6109]]

  Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, tonight I 
am joined by my colleague, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Jackson], 
who will also talk about an issue that we both have a great deal of 
compassion about as well as other Members of this Congress who will 
join us later to talk about an issue that we are somewhat complexed 
about because of the amount of church burnings across America, 
particularly in the southern part of our country. So tonight, Mr. 
Speaker and Members of the House, we would like to take the remainder 
of this hour to talk about the church burnings across the southern part 
of the country.
  Mr. Speaker, over 63 churches over the past 5 years were burned. All 
of these were African-American churches; 20 of those cases have been 
solved at this point. And before I go any further, I would like to 
commend the Justice Department, who has been working extraordinarily 
hard in trying to bring a resolution to the many recent church burnings 
across the country, and in particular I want to commend Deval Patrick, 
who is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. That department 
has been working profusely night and day to try to ascertain as much 
information as possible as relates to these burnings, and I would like 
to commend him and his staff for all the work that they are doing, and 
I would like to also commend him for the support that he has given to 
legislation to make penalties much more tougher and bring people to 
justice much quicker. And he will be on the Hill tomorrow, as I 
appreciate it, trying to convince the Committee on the Judiciary to 
pass legislation in that regard.
  I would also like to commend Jim Johnson, who is with the Department 
of the Treasury, who is the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement. They 
are working night and day to try to get as much information as possible 
as relates to the church burnings, and he has worked relentlessly in 
trying to obtain as much information as possible; and, of course, the 
personnel over at the entire division, Janet Reno, who on yesterday and 
on today met with many of the pastors of the churches that were burned 
from across the South, and I appreciate her compassion and the 
diligence she has shown in trying to bring people who are the 
perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
  The President should be commended as well for his commitment to 
expending as much resources as possible through this administration to 
ascertain any information that is possible to bring these senseless 
burnings to an end.
  Mr. Speaker and Members, I would like to share with the Members of 
the House very briefly the most recent churches that were burned across 
the country. I mentioned that there was 63 in the past 5 years, 20 of 
those cases unresolved, and I think as of last night 21 because a fire 
was, as I appreciate it, a church was set afire on last night in the 
State of Texas.
  In the State of Alabama, Mr. Speaker, there are a total of 5 churches 
that were burned. On December 22, 1995, Mount Zion Baptist Church, 
which is an African-American church, was burned in that particular 
State. On January 11, 1996, Little Mount Zion Baptist Church in Green 
County was set afire. On that same day Mount Zoar Baptist church in 
Green County was set afire. In both of these cases or both of these 
churches, the ATF agents have already ruled that arson was the cause of 
these fires. On February 28, 1996, New Liberty Baptist Church in Tyler 
was set afire, and on March 25, 1996, Missionary Baptist Church in 
Selma. A total of five churches in the State of Alabama have been 
burned since December 22, 1995, to this present day.
  In the State of Georgia there was one case of arson. On March 27, 
1996, Gay's Hill Baptist Church in Millen was burned.
  And in Louisiana, my State and my own district, we have had over five 
church burnings. One was Saint Charles Baptist Church, which was the 
fifth church that was burned, and that was burned on April 11, 1996, 
which is the most recent burning in the State of Louisiana. On February 
1, 1996, Cyprus Grove Baptist Church in East Baton Rouge Parish was set 
afire, and Saint Paul Free Baptist Church in East Baton Rouge Parish 
and Sweet Home Baptist Church in Baker, which is adjacent to East Baton 
Rouge Parish, and St.Thomas Chapel Benevolent Society in East Baton 
Rouge Parish. All four of these churches, Mr. Speaker and Members of 
the House, were set afire the same night, and on April 11, 1996, as I 
stated earlier, Saint Charles Baptist church was set afire as well.
  In the State of Mississippi we have identified two to three cases of 
arson. On March 5, 1996, St. Paul Church was burned, and on March 30, 
1996, El Bethal Church was burned.
  And in North Carolina there were four incidents. One that comes to 
mind the quickest was the 93-year-old wooden sanctuary that was once 
used by the congregation of Matthews-Murkland, which was a Presbyterian 
church, and that was in Charlotte, North Carolina, and that church was 
burned on June 7, which was the most recent burning in 1996.
  And in South Carolina there were five churches. Mount Zion AME Church 
was burned, and on August 15, 1995, St. John Baptist Church; June 22, 
1995, Macedonia Baptist Church; and April 13, 1996, Rosemary Baptist 
Church. Finally, on April 26, 1996, another Baptist church was burned 
in the State of South Carolina, and the gentleman from South Carolina 
[Mr. Clyburn], who had worked profusely on this and also in the CBC to 
inform Members of these church burnings, has been working very hard 
with ATF and with the FBI and the Justice Department to try to get as 
much information as possible, and perhaps he will join us in this 
colloquy later tonight.
  The State of Tennessee had a total of six burnings. January 13, 1995, 
Johnson Grove Baptist Church in Denmark and Macedonia Baptist Church in 
Crockett County; they both burned the same night, on the 13th of 
January. On January 31, 1995, Mount Calvary Baptist Church was burned, 
and on December 30, 1995, Selma Baptist Church in Fruitland was burned, 
and on January 8, 1996, Inner City Church in Knoxville was burned to 
the ground, and on May 14, 1996, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, which 
is being investigated at this point, is still under investigation, and 
they have not yet ruled this church to be a church that was burned by 
arson.
  And last, the State of Texas, on June 6, 1996, New Lighthouse of 
Prayer in Greenville.
  And a Church of Living God was burned in Virginia on February 21, 
1996; Glorious Church of God and Christ in Richmond was burned.
  The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Jackson], we have talked about what 
could we do as Members of Congress to try to assist in stopping this 
avalanche of church burnings across the southern part of our country, 
and we were happy to learn that the ATF decided to publicize a 1-800 
number, so we urge Members of this Congress to please inform their 
constituencies of the 1-800 number that their constituents can take 
advantage of if they know of any information whatsoever about any of 
these church burnings, and I am told that toll free number is 800-ATF-
FIRE, which is a 24-hour a day, 7-day-a-week number where any citizen 
in this country who has any information whatsoever about church 
burnings in America can, in fact, call this number, and agents will 
respond.

  We feel that this country should have zero tolerance for anyone who 
would have the audacity and the gall to burn anything, but 
particularly, particularly, a church. For a person to light a match to 
a place of worship in this country shows no respect, first of all, to 
himself, to the individual who chooses to do it, and certainly does not 
show any respect to human life. And we are committed to work with the 
Justice Department, the ATF, and the FBI, and all of the investigative 
agencies. As Members of Congress, we are committed to supporting this 
effort so that we can bring it to some conclusion.
  And this is a bipartisan effort, both Democrats and Republicans. We 
all agree that there should not, none of us, have any tolerance for 
individuals who would burn a place of worship. We started this 
coalition with the blue dog Democrats, as a matter of fact, about 3 
months ago when these church burnings first started to set some type of 
pattern across the southern part of our country, and then that 
coalition expanded, of course, to the entire Congress.

[[Page H6110]]

  So I am thankful to all of the Members who have been participating in 
briefings on church burnings, and I am very thankful to the Justice 
Department and the administration for their zero-tolerance attitude for 
this type of behavior and action across the country.
  At this time I am going to yield to my colleague from Illinois, Mr. 
Jackson.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the distinguished 
gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Fields] for allowing me the opportunity 
to participate this evening in this special order. I certainly want to 
join my colleagues along with the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Fields] 
and the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Hyde] from the other side of the 
aisle, and the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton], the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis], members of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, members of the progressive caucus in this Congress, in 
condemning those who are burning churches, defacing synagogues in our 
Nation, and certainly congratulate those who are seeking to bring the 
perpetrators to justice.
  Attorney General Janet Reno has been working diligently along with 
Deval Patrick, along with the members of the FBI and the ATF, to bring 
these perpetrators to justice. It is my understanding, after having 
talked with Mr. Patrick, that this is one of the largest civil rights 
investigations that has ever taken place in our Nation's history.
  I am hoping that the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana, after I 
read a brief history of church burnings in our Nation, put them in some 
particular context, will certainly join me in a colloquy about church 
burnings and what it is that we can do to bring an end to this climate.
  There are those who have said in the civil rights community that this 
is not only an indication of the climate and the times that we find 
ourselves in, but that there is indeed a conspiracy, if not a 
conspiracy of individuals who have met on this subject, certainly a 
conspiracy of culture.

                              {time}  2015

  If there can be said to be a bright side about these incidents, it is 
that blacks and whites, Christians, Jews, Protestants, and Catholics, 
the Rainbow Coalition and the Christian Coalition have united against 
these acts and they have come together calling for more Federal 
resources to go into the investigative efforts to bring the 
perpetrators to justice.
  Mr. Speaker, some in the civil rights community have referred to this 
form of church-burning as cultural conspiracy, a cultural conspiracy 
that tolerates, if you will, a kind of racism. The fires have drawn the 
attention of rights' groups because of the historical legacy of black 
churches being repeatedly burned during the 1950's and the 1960's. 
While others have indicated that while those in white sheets have 
historically been burning churches, we are now living in a climate 
where those in blue suits are legislating against the civil rights of 
many Americans, and also those in black robes are indeed passing down 
judicial decrees that are severely restricting the principles of equal 
protection under the law.
  When we look at what has taken place in this Nation since 1990, 57 
houses of worship have been destroyed as a result of fire and vandalism 
in 15 States. Only 13 cases have been successfully prosecuted and 
closed. A total of 30 incidents have been reported thus far in 1996 
alone. Since 1986, there have been reports of suspicious fires almost 
ever year. Most blazes occurred in rural, isolated areas where water 
had to be transported to the site by volunteer companies.
  In eight of the cases, where arrests have been made, perpetrators 
have been white. One was even a fireman. Seventeen fires were set 
during black history month or other important civil rights 
anniversaries, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination; the 
march across the Edmond Pettis Bridge in Selma, AL in the month of 
March; or near the time the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday is 
celebrated.
  The States that have been hardest hit are Tennessee with eight 
churches, Louisiana with five churches, Alabama with five churches, and 
in Louisiana, four of the five churches were torched on February 1, 
1996, in East Baton Rouge Parish. I believe the gentleman from 
Louisiana represents this parish.
  The interesting thing about February 1, 1996 is that it is the 
anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in's, where students from North 
Carolina A&T State University--my alma mater in 1960--fought for public 
accommodations. Of the Louisiana churches--Cyprus Grove Baptist Church, 
St. Paul's Free Baptist Church, Sweet Home Baptist Church, Thomas 
Chapel Benevolent society--all four were located within a 6-mile radius 
of each other. The St. Charles Baptist Church, the fifth church, was 
burned on April 11, 1996 in Paincourtville, Louisiana and citizens, 
again, who are concerned should know that that number is 888-ATF-FIRE. 
If there is any information that you can provide and that Members of 
Congress can provide through their networks to alert the proper 
authorities about these church burnings, they certainly should do that.
  I want to put this in a particular historical context, which I think 
is certainly appropriate for these times. I wanted to do a little 
research before commenting further on the climate within which churches 
have historically burned in this Nation. Before I go any further, I 
certainly want to commend the gentlewoman from North Carolina, Mrs. Eva 
Clayton, for the legislation that she is sponsoring, along with other 
Members of Congress who are sponsoring legislation to challenge 
perpetrators of church-burnings and synagogue defacings in our Nation.
  I think what is probably most instrumental when we look at church-
burnings in our Nation is that while we are living in a climate and in 
an environment where there are those who would say that race is still 
not a factor in American life, while we are hearing more decrees from 
the court that are certainly suggesting that the court should be going 
in a direction of color-blindness.
  There is one thing that is clear about American history, and that is 
that race is really not a side issue. It is not an addendum to American 
history. It is central to the entire history of our Nation from a 
constitutional perspective: three-fifths human voting status, article 
1, section 2 of the constitution; the ``such persons'' clause, article 
1, section 9; the persons held to service or labor clause, article 4, 
section 2, paragraph 3; article 5, prohibiting any amendment of the 
slave trade and capitalization tax clauses before the year 1808.
  It was William Lloyd Garrison and his liberator who condemned the 
Constitution at that time as a covenant with death and in agreement 
with hell. It is only because of constitutional amendments, amendments 
that ended slavery, that guaranteed the right to vote, that 
subsequently established the principles of equal protection under the 
law for all Americans, that the Constitution has indeed endured.
  Look at our Nation's Capitol. Even the location of our Nation's 
Capital, it was determined, should be the by-product of a compromise 
made at the time the Congress was in Philadelphia. The Congress of the 
United States is presently located between Maryland and Virginia, the 
compromise between a free State, Maryland, and that of slave State, 
Virginia. Look at the number of States that were entered into the Union 
on the issue of race. Slave and free States were admitted together to 
keep balance in this institution between those who were interested in 
abolishing the institution of slavery and those who wanted to keep it.
  I raise these particular concerns because when we look at the Tilden-
Hayes Compromise of 1877, when a Democratic President was subsequently 
elected, and by and large a conservative court ran the Supreme Court of 
the United States, there was an assumption about the progress that many 
minorities in our Nation began making after 1863. Twenty-two African-
Americans served in this institution as a result of the Emancipation 
Proclamation. Beyond that, 131 historically black colleagues were also 
founded.
  But once the Tilden-Hayes compromise took place, when Democrats and 
Republicans, two parties with one assumption at that time--to stop the 
progress that African-Americans and other minorities were making in our 
Nation so quickly--they withdrew troops from the South that is, they

[[Page H6111]]

withdrew Federal protection from the South, and as a result, the Klan, 
the Ku Klux Klan, those Knights of the Ku Klux Klan became more 
evident. Beyond that, churches began to burn at unparalleled rates.
  So in 1996, when we look at the parallels between what took place in 
1896 with Plessy versus Ferguson and decisions that are coming out of 
our Court in 1996, we are certainly looking at a climate where we are 
withdrawing some of the principles that indeed fought historically 
against these acts, acts against church burning, acts against racial 
hatred in the South.
  So I would certainly put in that context a challenge to both 
Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the aisle as we try and find 
creative solutions to resolving this particular crisis. We must, when 
they talk about cultural conspiracy, and I have heard several civil 
rights leaders refer to this as a cultural conspiracy.
  What do they mean when they say cultural conspiracy? I am the 
gentleman from the south side of Chicago. I am a big Chicago Bulls fan. 
Everyone in the Congress certainly knows that. I do believe that 
Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippin of the Chicago Bulls will win a 
championship and bring it home to Chicago.
  When Michael Jordan shoots a 3-point shot, I say to the gentleman 
from Louisiana [Mr. Fields], he manages to shoot that shot from the 3-
point line, and wherever he is, Jesse, Junior, in Chicago jumps up 
excited because Michael Jordan just made a basket. But guess what? 
Michael Jordan fans in Los Angeles also jump up and shout. Michael 
Jordan fans in Dallas and Michael Jordan fans in Florida, Michael 
Jordan fans all across our country and indeed Michael Jordan fans 
around our world, they jump up, a kind of conspiracy, if you will, for 
Michael Jordan, because he represents the common denominator through 
which all of us relate, many of us relate to the Chicago Bulls.
  When we talk about cultural conspiracies with respect to church 
burnings, when politicians fan race hatred, fan the fears of racial 
animosity within our Nation at the top, they create a kind of cultural 
conspiracy. In 1964, in reaction to Brown versus The Board of 
Education, Goldwater ran his campaign talking about States' rights. It 
was a way of saying that States had a way under the equal protection 
clause of the Constitution of the United States.
  In 1968, in response to the 1967 and 1968 riots, Nixon ran his 
campaign on law and order. In 1972 Wallace ran his campaign in reaction 
to integration on busing. In 1976, even Carter, a Democrat, ran his 
campaign and announced his candidacy from Georgia, gave a speech in 
Indiana, talking about ethnic purity; a Democrat. In 1980 Reagan talked 
about welfare queens, and in 1988 it was Bush who used Willy Horton, 
and even our own President, in 1992, who used Sister Soljah in his bid 
to become the President of the United States.
  In 1996 what are the issues that are quickly approaching the election 
season? Affirmative action, a big issue in California, the CCRI, 
California Civil Rights Initiative; welfare reform. We have taken care 
of many of the substantive issues, but what is left are those issues 
that exacerbate those racial fears and racial tension. My appeal in 
this climate to both parties to help avert this whole notion of a 
cultural conspiracy would be that we rise above racial politics in 1996 
and do what is in the best interests of the American people.

  Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I think I hear what the 
gentleman is saying. The gentleman is saying, as I appreciate it, that 
we as public officials who are looked upon on a day-to-day basis for 
leadership, be it in our own districts or be it throughout the country, 
we have to be, first of all, more tolerant of each other, and we must 
also realize that we have to lead by example and try to talk about 
concentrating more on those things that bring us together than to put 
so much emphasis on those things that may divide us.
  I think the gentleman is correct. Many times, all too often people in 
public life, people who run for office use issues as a wedge rather 
than a magnet to bring people together, but a wedge to divide. I do not 
know if this is what we get, the church-burning is a result of what we 
get as a result of dividing and not healing and bringing people 
together. I do not know if that is the reason or not.
  But I do think the gentleman certainly makes a very compelling 
argument in that respect. It goes to show you that people do in fact, 
if that is one of the by-products of division in this Congress, 
division in government, if one of the by-products is somebody going to 
go put a match to a church, then we have to be very careful in terms of 
how we lead and govern.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. 
Speaker, can we indeed separate church-burnings from the blowing up of 
a Federal building in Oklahoma, anti-Federal Government; the Government 
is too large, the Government is the source of our problem? Can we 
indeed separate church-burnings from the Freemen's movement and 
militias on the rise across our Nation, those who are declaring that 
their individual plots of land are not part of the United States?
  I am suggesting that there is a cultural conspiracy that is much 
broader than just the churches. We are living in a very dangerous 
climate where we are not only burning churches but we are also burning 
opportunity, and while we are burning opportunities not only for 
African-Americans and Latino-Americans, we are also burning 
opportunities in large numbers for poor white Americans, and many of 
those poor white Americans, along with African-Americans, Latinos, and 
others, are indeed reacting to this climate.

  One of the things we must do is rise above it. They take their cues 
from us. If they see us on this floor race-baiting and using cold words 
and cold language to accomplish short-term political ends, if they see 
us doing it at the national Presidential level, if they see us doing it 
in the U.S. Senate, the by-product is certainly intolerance that takes 
place within our communities, which no freestanding and no uplifting 
human being should absolutely tolerate.
  Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. I thank the gentleman, Mr. Speaker. That 
leads me to the point of legislation. The gentleman spoke of the 
legislation that was introduced by the gentlewoman from North Carolina 
[Mrs. Clayton] and also to legislation that was introduced by the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Conyers] and the gentleman from Illinois 
[Mr. Hyde] as a matter of fact. I am a coauthor of those pieces of 
legislation, and will be fighting profusely to pass those pieces on 
this floor, and to even make them stronger, because in listening to the 
President's address on Saturday, I do agree with the President. This 
legislation not only needs to be supported by Members of Congress but 
it also needs to be strengthened. I am going to be working with members 
of this body to strengthen this legislation.
  I agree with you, we need more than legislation, because we have 
heard time and time again, one cannot legislate morality. We need more 
than tougher laws on the books. We need more than a good speech from an 
individual or a group of individuals. We need positive action. I think 
that just seeing Democrats and Republicans come together on legislation 
to prevent further harm to churches or to try to show some attention, 
bring some attention on a very serious problem is a good indication 
that we can in fact work together.
  But all too often we do it later, rather than sooner, and I think you 
are right, we have too much race-baiting, for lack of a better word, in 
this country. It is not only in the Congress, it is in State 
legislatures. Now there is affirmative action, a thing that was created 
by people, legislators who thought and who felt a genuine need in their 
heart and mind and in their soul to bring people together and to give 
individuals who have been discriminated against for years and years an 
opportunity, no a guarantee but a mere opportunity to be treated fair.

                              {time}  2030

  That thing we call affirmative action is now a racial buzz word, and 
people use it to divide people instead of bringing people together, and 
I think that is unfortunate. But the gentleman is right, we have to 
lead by example. If we want racial harmony in our society

[[Page H6112]]

and in our country, then the best example is the one that we make 
ourselves, and it is not only on this floor but throughout our daily 
lives.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. One of the things I did when I ran for 
Congress in the Second Congressional District of Illinois is I 
indicated I would rather lose my race right rather than win it wrong, 
that I did not want to come to Congress at anyone else's expense.
  In the Second Congressional District I ran against some very 
formidable opponents, but one of the things I did not want to do was 
destroy their reputations or their character just so that Jesse Jr. 
could serve in this body. I knew I was young enough, had the energy 
enough to run every time until I won, with the ability to build the 
consensus that was necessary to provide the kind of hope for the people 
of my district.
  I say that to put it in any context. When we hear Presidential 
candidates who run for political office and on the one hand they equate 
the song ``We Shall Overcome'' with whistling ``Dixie,'' there is no 
difference, a Presidential candidate said, between ``We Shall 
Overcome'' and whistling ``Dixie,'' they are both freedom movements.
  Well, if whistling ``Dixie,'' protecting the Confederacy, is part of 
a freedom movement and ``We Shall Overcome'' can be equated, it 
certainly suggests that either we are all missing the boat or that 
something is taking place within our Nation that has not been healed 
even since the Civil War. So I would certainly challenge those 
Presidential candidates to keep the Presidential campaign focused on 
issues of substance to people as it affects their daily lives.
  The gentleman mentioned affirmative action. I heard some of our 
colleagues earlier on the other side of the aisle talking about 
affirmative action. He is right. In 1996 affirmative action has become 
a buzz word.
  But the reality is affirmative action is really an outgrowth of the 
1954 Brown versus Board of Education decision. Affirmative action is a 
conservative remedy to offset historical action, historical negative 
action against groups of people in our society that have been 
historically denied.
  For example, I did a television show last weekend with one of the 
distinguished gentlemen from the other side of the aisle, and we talked 
about affirmative action. We talked about affirmative action as equal 
opportunity, that is, providing opportunity for those who have been 
historically locked out in our society, and I might add that the 
primary beneficiaries of affirmative action in our Nation have been 
white women, not African-Americans. While there are those in our 
country who would paint affirmative action as the program that has 
provided unusual, unfair advantage to African-Americans, the primary 
beneficiaries of affirmative action in the State of Illinois and in 
States around our Nation have been businesses owned by white women.
  But why is affirmative action so important? Yes, white women have 
been discriminated against, African-Americans have been discriminated 
against, and there is a legacy of ongoing discrimination that still 
takes place within our Nation.
  The example that I use so regularly across our country is this. When 
we look to find qualified basketball players to play at any Big 10 or 
Division I basketball school in our country, we go all over the 
country. We have boosters who write the coach and say, ``Coach, listen, 
there is a 7-foot-4 basketball player here in our local township who 
can play basketball. Why don't you give them an opportunity, give them 
a tryout, send them a letter or try and get them to sign a letter of 
intent?''

  So we go all over the country, primarily because we have an 
institution in place called boosters to provide information for 
coaches, and that is why we find so many prominent African-Americans 
playing basketball in Division I schools.
  The problem is this: When it comes around to finding qualified 
African-Americans who can teach or qualified women who can teach, 
qualified African-American female, Latino and Asian-American 
administrators at these schools, suddenly the same aggressive 
recruitment mechanism that went into finding qualified ball players is 
not applied when it comes to finding qualified teachers. They always 
say, ``Well, we looked in the local pool, the local municipality and we 
couldn't find African-Americans or women or Latinos or Asian Americans 
who were qualified.''
  What affirmative action simply suggests as it relates to that kind of 
opportunity is that those institutions must be as aggressive in trying 
to find qualified black Ph.D.'s and female Ph.D.'s and Latino Ph.D.'s 
just as they went and found qualified African-American ball players who 
play ball in parks across our country and in our high schools.
  Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. I agree with the gentleman. I think one of 
the problems we have with affirmative action is a perception problem. 
People try to view affirmative action as two parallel lines, if you 
will, where we take somebody who is not qualified and we elevate them 
to the level of somebody who is. But in all actuality, that is not 
affirmative action.
  Affirmative action should be viewed instead as a circle, where every 
person in the circle, they are all qualified to do the job, to perform 
the obligation of the contract, but there is one problem. Though there 
are women in the circle, they never get chosen. Very few of them get an 
opportunity to fly a plane, though they are qualified pilots. Though 
there are a lot of African Americans in the circle who can perform the 
obligation of the contract, they never get an opportunity to even bid.
  So affirmative action is not two parallel lines where we take 
somebody who is not qualified and elevate them to the level of somebody 
who is. It is instead a circle where everybody within the circle, one 
of the prerequisites that one must have in order to get into the circle 
are qualifications. A person has to be qualified to get into the 
circle.

  The only problem is, but for affirmative action, many qualified 
people within that circle would never get an opportunity to compete. 
People do not get jobs because of affirmative action. Women do not get 
jobs because of affirmative action, blacks, Hispanics, Latinos. They 
get jobs because they are qualified. They only get an opportunity to 
compete.
  I want to also mention a meeting that I had today. We started the 
special order off talking about the church burning and now the 
byproducts of it. I met with the ministers from my district. About four 
of them were in my office today, after meeting with the Justice 
Department, and it is amazing, I guess it is not really amazing but it 
is encouraging, which is a better word, to see these ministers who have 
had their churches burned to the ground, not lose faith.
  One of the ministers when asked by, I guess, the Justice Department 
what penalty he thinks should be imposed, he said, ``Well, 15 years of 
going to Bible school, or 10 years of going to Bible study and working 
with the choir and the church.'' These are individuals who have lost 
their buildings, not their churches, because it takes more than a torch 
to burn a congregation. That was only a building.
  To know that those congregations all across the southern part of our 
country are still meeting, meeting in homes, meeting in parking lots, 
even meeting at other churches and those ministers still leading that 
flock, it brings a breath of fresh air. So for individuals who think 
they can kill the spirit by burning the church, they are going to have 
another think coming, because it really does not even weaken it. I have 
even been in my own State where it has made some of these churches even 
stronger.
  I would like to thank those individuals. I do not know about in other 
areas of the State but the local community. When we went through this 
calamity in Louisiana of the initial church burning, four in on night, 
to see the business community and to see the community at large come 
together to try to pool resource to help support those congregations is 
absolutely extraordinary.
  It just goes to show the good that we have in so many people. If we 
can just advocate that good, not only in times of disaster as the 
gentleman stated, but advocate that good will that we all have within 
ourselves as often as possible, then hopefully those kind of hate

[[Page H6113]]

crimes will go away and be a thing of the past.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Let me say if there is any bright side to 
this very unfortunate series of events that have been taking place in 
our Nation, it is that African-Americans and Jewish-Americans and I 
have seen Catholic Americans along with Protestant Americans come 
together, the Rainbow Coalition coming together philosophically with 
the Christian Coalition to condemn these acts. This is something that 
historically I would think, considering the partisan nature of politics 
in our country, would not necessarily be the case, but they have moved 
beyond their partisan differences, because any group of individual who 
would attack a church is certainly beneath the dignity of what we refer 
to and call ourselves Americans. And so those who are doing it should 
stop and those who have information about those who are doing it should 
call 888-ATF-FIRE and certainly call the ATF and let them know that 
they have some information about these unfortunate turn of events in 
our country.
  I thought it was important to put these church burnings in a 
historical context, because all too often the history of racism and 
sexism and classism and church burnings and climate setting in our 
Nation and the role that we play as elected officials in fanning those 
fires, that is, helping those fires get worse. We are not just burning 
churches, we are also burning opportunity in our Nation. Burning 
opportunity forces reaction in our Nation in terms of those who are 
getting an advantage through affirmative action, through other programs 
that were designed to help the poor regardless of their race, sex, 
color or class, in this particular climate we see that there is an 
emergence, if you will, of more church burnings and this kind of racial 
hatred.
  I want to go back just quickly to affirmative action because we are 
talking about not just burning churches but burning opportunity in our 
Nation. To hire someone because they are unqualified is absolutely 
illegal. That is illegal in our Nation. Affirmative action does not 
mandate that one hire someone because they are unqualified. I think the 
analogy that the gentleman from Louisiana raises about an airline pilot 
is certainly correct. You do not hire an African American to fly a 
plane or hire a woman or a Latin or an Asian American to fly a plane 
simply because of their color. Who would want to fly in a plane in this 
country if you hired someone who did not know how to fly a plane? That 
is ridiculous. But it does mean that if African Americans and if women 
historically have not flown planes in our Nation, have not been given 
an equal opportunity of flying a plane, then the airline industries 
across our Nation must go out of their way and do something that they 
have historically not done, go out of their way to find qualified 
African-American men from Tuskegee, Tuskegee pilots, find qualified 
women, black, white, brown, Asian, who can fly planes and give them an 
opportunity.
  I cannot help but remember and think about the significance of the 
late Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown's most recent trip to Bosnia-
Herzegovina, the former war-torn Yugoslavia. Ron Brown was a big 
supporter of affirmative action. I certainly hope that his support of 
affirmative action and equal opportunity does not get lost in his 
legacy. But for Ron Brown's very unfortunate and untimely demise along 
with many of our mutual friends who were on that plane, the only thing 
we probably would have known about that trip from the media accounts 
was the fact that they were giving hamburgers to soldiers in the former 
Yugoslavia. But when the plane crashed, we also discovered something 
else. We found out who else was on the plane, business people, 
predominantly white businessmen, CEO's of major corporations across our 
country, who were going to Yugoslavia to rebuild the former war-torn 
republic, really to receive a grant from the Federal Government that we 
had provided in this institution for any U.S. company that wanted to go 
there and rebuild it. They were using a military plane, they were using 
military personnel, and the Secretary of Commerce was escorting those 
businesspeople, predominantly white, male-owned companies on a trip for 
opportunity.

  Why was Ron Brown such a big supporter of affirmative action? Because 
he wanted those business people on those trips that only he knew as 
Secretary of Commerce that he was really taking to come back to the 
United States and do business with African-Americans and women and 
Asians and Native Americans and those who for whatever reason could not 
be participants on those international trips. Ron Brown knew that the 
U.S. Government was providing opportunity for those business people in 
foreign markets and they also had some obligation as a matter of law, 
not as a matter of good will or good feeling or how we think about 
people but as a matter of law to come back to this Nation and do 
business with African-Americans and with women and with Asians who 
could not make that trip. Ron Brown was about expanding opportunity, 
and affirmative action was a factor in his program.
  Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. I thank the gentleman for those comments. In 
closing, I can only say that we have a long way to go and we can make 
it there if we do it together and we can get there a lot quicker. There 
is an old saying that you can get it a place a lot quicker if everybody 
pulls in the same direction. The more we pull in the same direction, 
the sooner we will get to that destination, that promised land, so to 
speak, that Dr. King talked about where we all could work together and 
more forward. Hopefully one day we will not have these senseless 
burnings like we have today, senseless bombings like we have had in the 
past, but people will grow to be tolerant of each other and respect 
each other and learn how to live with each other.
  I would only say in closing to those churches and those ministers and 
those congregations, I am just pleased that Attorney General Janet Reno 
and the President; Deval Patrick, the Assistant Attorney General; the 
ATF and all the enforcement mechanisms that we have at our disposal 
here in this government are all working together in concert with each 
other to try to change or to try to at least bring these individuals, 
the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice so that they can be 
duly prosecuted under the law.

                              {time}  2045

  That is their function. We can do something probably even more 
profound than that. Not only can we pass legislation, and we will, but 
we can lead by example and try to bring out the best in people.
  There is no rhyme nor reason whatsoever for an individual to put a 
torch to a church, a place of worship in this country. That is a sad 
day in our society when we have individuals setting fires at places of 
worship, and we would hope that it would cease and would cease right 
away.
  And for those individuals in our respective districts who know any 
information whatsoever, it is incumbent upon us to publicize this 888-
ATF-FIRE number. That is our responsibility, I would say to the 
gentleman from Illinois. It is our responsibility to go back to our 
respective districts in these several States and try to public that 
888----
  Mr. JACKON of Illinois. ATF-FIRE.
  Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. ATF-FIRE number, and encourage any 
individuals with any information whatsoever to call that number and 
give it to the proper authorities so that we can at least bring those 
individuals to justice.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time to the gentleman.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to thank the 
distinguished gentleman from Louisiana for his very kind and very 
gentle remarks. I would certainly hope those of us in this body, really 
on both sides of the aisle and certainly those of us who occupy the 
Supreme Court of the United States and the White House, that we would 
be particularly sensitive that it is but by the grace of God that the 
churches that have been burnt, that there have not been full 
congregations or any congregations in those churches at those times.
  But let us also be cognizant of the role that we play with our 
debates on the floor of this House, with the way in which we conduct 
ourselves in our Democrat versus Republican politics back home, with 
the implementation of strategies that have not brought out the very 
best in people but have, indeed, exacerbated fears and brought out the 
very worst in people.

[[Page H6114]]

  I certainly want to commend the distinguished gentleman from 
Louisiana for the way in which he has conducted himself publicly and 
the role he has tried to play it bringing African-Americans, white 
Americans, Asian Americans, native Americans and all of the different 
of Americans under one big tent called America.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, we yield back the balance of our time.
  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, a southern nightmare has returned to the 
once quiet and tranquil rural counties of America's southland which has 
many of our citizens concerned.
  A wave of church arsons is sweeping across the South, taking with it 
many rural, mostly black churches, as well as the confidence and 
security that many of these communities once felt.
  Mr. Speaker, if this were 1956, I would blame it on the States's-
Rights activists, but this isn't 1956, this is 1996, and I thought Bull 
Conner was dead.
  Just like a bad dream which comes in the middle of the night, so 
also, come these arsons, enveloped in darkness and all too reminiscent 
of the Bad Old Days when the night-riders of the Ku Klux Klan practiced 
their evil under the cover of darkness and with the assistance of the 
torch.
  The number of incidents, as of May 21, 1996, given in testimony 
before the Judiciary Committee, was 57 across the United States.
  Now, the number of church arsons has risen to 58.
  The number has risen to 58 because this last Sunday, another fire 
tragically burned the Rising Star Baptist Church, in Greensboro, AL, to 
the ground, and leaving an entire congregation without a house of 
worship.
  The fire is still under investigation. Tragically, under the cover of 
darkness, a beautiful quiet community in west Alabama's agricultural 
heartland has again experienced another church arson. This makes the 
ninth arson of a black church in Alabama.
  In light of these events, the names of these Alabama churches now 
evoke a rollcall of despair, a string of broken dreams, and a hallmark 
of heartache. Allow me to cite the names of the Alabama churches which 
have burned: Mount Zion Baptist Church; Mount Zoar Baptist Church; 
Little Zion Baptist Church; New Liberty Baptist Church; Jerusalem 
Baptist Church; Bucks Chapel Church; Oak Grove Missionary Baptist 
Church; Pine Top Baptist Church; and now Rising Star Baptist Church.
  Mr. Speaker, I can not say definitely that these fires are the direct 
result of a resurgence of racism, but they are the deliberate result of 
hatred, ignorance, and lawlessness.
  Although these fires have burned down many rural churches in Alabama 
and across the United States, these fires have not burned out my 
optimism for the progress which Alabama and the South have made in my 
lifetime, in the area of race relations.
  I know, it is a far from a perfect situation which exists today in 
Alabama, or in America, but if we realize this fact, and continue to 
progress and grow, we will reach Dr. King's promised land. And just 
like Dr. King, ``I may not be with you, when you get there,'' but if 
this day comes after my work on earth is done, I assure you that I will 
be there in spirit.
  In closing, allow me to say that crosses may not be burning in 
Alabama tonight, but our churches are in flames and these criminals 
must be brought to justice.

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