The following is a series of articles about people conspiring with the Ku Klux Klan and their involvement in the string of burnings of black churches in the south. Though some of the fires have been ruled accidental, a majority of them have been determined to be the result of arson. Most of the arrests of people who committed the arson have been of people with some involvement with the Ku Klux Klan.
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Former Klansmen plead guilty in church fires
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (CNN) -- Two former Ku Klux Klan members pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to burning two predominantly black churches in South Carolina last year. Gary Christopher Cox, 23, and Timothy Welch, 24, admitted burning the Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville and the Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville in June 1995. Each man faces a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison. Cox and Welch were members of the Ku Klux Klan when they set fire to hymnals, wicker baskets and wooden chairs at Mount Zion AME on June 20, 1995. A day later, they poured gasoline and oil on the floor of Macedonia Baptist Church and ignited it. Lawyers for Cox and Welch said the two decided to set the fires after attending a KKK rally in which black churches were blamed for promoting the interests of blacks to the detriment of whites. President Clinton visited the rebuilt Mount Zion church in June. At that time, he said investigations into about 70 predominantly black church fires since January 1995 would become a federal law enforcement priority. Most of the churches were in the South. "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," he said.
article:
http://cnn.com/US/9608/14/church.fires/index.html
http://cnn.com/US/9608/14/church.fires/index.html
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Five teens arrested in Alabama church fire
LITTLE RIVER, Alabama (CNN) -- Five white teen-agers have been charged with setting a fire that destroyed a black church. The FBI said some of the suspects attended a Ku Klux Klan rally a couple of days before the fire. The suspects are charged under a federal law passed last year to prevent church arson and vandalism. All five are accused of burning St. Joe Baptist church either last Monday or early Tuesday. Two of the suspects are additionally accused of vandalizing the Tate Chapel AME church. An FBI agent said Saturday that some of the suspects had attended a White Knight of Alabama rally held June 28 in Tensaw, about 10 miles from the churches.
article:
http://cnn.com/US/9606/08/arson.timeline/index.html
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Former KKK member allegedly vowed to burn church again
MANNING, South Carolina (CNN) -- A former Ku Klux Klan member charged with conspiring to burn a black church threatened to set it on fire again after it was rebuilt, a federal agent said in court Tuesday. Herbert Rowell allegedly plotted with three other ex-Klansmen to burn Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville last summer. He also is charged with burning a migrant labor camp in an indictment returned last week. Gary Christopher Cox, 22, and Timothy Adron Welch, 24, pleaded guilty last week to igniting Macedonia Baptist and Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville last summer. President Clinton visited in June to help dedicate the rebuilt Mount Zion church. Cox and Welch confessed after a year-long investigation. They implicated two older Klan members, Rowell and Arthur Haley, in one of the church fires, the labor camp burning and the burning of a black man's car.
article: http://cnn.com/US/9608/20/klan.fires/index.html"
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