[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.

[[Page 876]]

    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.