    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [June 8, 1996]
    [Pages 875-876]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    June 8, 1996

        Good morning. This morning I want to talk with you about a recent
    and disturbing rash of crimes that harkens back to a dark era in our
    Nation's history. Just 2 days ago, when the Matthews-Murkland
    Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, was burned to the
    ground, it became at least the 30th African-American church destroyed or
    damaged by suspicious fire in the South in the past 18 months. And over
    the past few months, Vice President Gore has talked with me about the
    pain and anguish these fires in his home State of Tennessee have caused.
    Tennessee, sadly, has experienced more of them than any other State in
    the country.
        We do not now have evidence of a national conspiracy, but it is
    clear that racial hostility is the driving force behind a number of
    these incidents. This must stop.
        It's hard to think of a more depraved act of violence than the
    destruction of a place of worship. In our country, during the fifties
    and sixties, black churches were burned to intimidate civil rights
    workers. I have vivid and painful memories of black churches being
    burned in my own State when I was a child. In 1963 all Americans were
    outraged by the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
    Birmingham that took the lives of four precious young children. We must
    never allow that to happen again.
        Every family has a right to expect that when they walk into a church
    or synagogue or mosque each week they will find a house of worship, not
    the charred remnants of a hateful act done by cowards in the night. We
    must rise up as a national community to safeguard the right of every
    citizen to worship in safety. That is what America stands for.
        As President, I am determined to do everything in my power to get to
    the bottom of these church burnings as quickly as possible. And no
    matter how long it takes, no matter where the leads take us, we will
    devote whatever resources are necessary to solve these crimes. Today,
    more than 200 Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
    Firearms and the FBI are working with State and local authorities to
    solve these cases. Fire investigators, national response teams,
    polygraph examiners, and forensic chemists are combing through fire
    sites, interviewing witnesses, and following leads. A task force chaired
    by our Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Deval Patrick, and
    our Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, James Johnson,
    is coordinating these efforts. FBI Director Louis Freeh and ATF Director
    John Magaw are also serving on the task force. To date there have been a
    number of arrests. Two of those in custody are known members of the Ku
    Klux Klan. So we are making progress, but we must do more.

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        That is why today I am announcing four steps we are taking to fight
    back. First, I have asked the task force to report back on their
    progress and to let me know if there are other actions the Federal
    Government can take beyond those underway to stop these crimes. Second,
    I have instructed the ATF to inform churches of any steps they can take
    to protect themselves from arsonists. Churches throughout the South will
    be visited by ATF special agents to answer any questions church leaders
    and parishioners may have. We are also making this information available
    to national church organizations for distribution to their members.
    Third, I am announcing my support for the bipartisan legislation
    introduced by Congressmen John Conyers and Henry Hyde to make it easier
    to bring Federal prosecutions against those who attack houses of
    worship. I look forward to working with Congress to make it even
    stronger. And finally, I'm announcing that we are establishing a new
    toll-free number that is now available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If
    you have information about who is responsible for these churches fires,
    please call it. It's 1-888-ATF-FIRE. That's 1-888-ATF-F-I-R-E.
        In the end, we must all face up to the responsibility to end this
    violence. We must say to those who would feed their neighbors what
    Martin Luther King called ``the stale bread of hatred and spoiled meat
    of racism'': That is not America; that is not our way. We must come
    together, black and white alike, to smother the fires of hatred that
    fuel this violence.
        I am pleased that the National Council of Churches of Christ, one of
    the largest interfaith groups in the country, has spoken out against
    these crimes and is mobilizing to assist in the rebuilding of damaged
    churches. I encourage communities everywhere where churches have been
    burned to roll up their sleeves and help the folks there to rebuild
    their churches.
        Religious freedom is one of the founding principles of our
    democracy, and the black church has historically been the center of
    worship, self-help, and community life for millions of families in our
    country. That's why it was so hard for Reverend Terrence Mackey to break
    the news to his daughter last June when they woke to find an ash-scarred
    field in the spot where only the day before stood their church home,
    Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville, South Carolina. Reverend Mackey
    reassured his daughter with these words--he told her, ``They didn't burn
    down the church. They burned down the building in which we hold church.
    The church is still inside all of us.'' On June 15th, Reverend Mackey,
    his daughter, and his congregation will march from the site of the old
    church to a brand new building. And all Americans will march with them
    in spirit.
        We must all do our part to end this rash of violence. America is a
    great country because for more than 200 years we have strived to honor
    the religious convictions, the freedom, the extraordinary religious
    diversity of our people. The only way we can succeed in the 21st century
    is if we unleash the full power of those convictions and that diversity
    and refuse to let anything divide or defeat us.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House.