Blair Reeves has never attended Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church. In fact, he’s never set foot in Mississippi.
Reeves was horrified, though, when he saw on the internet that the black church in Greenville, Miss. had been burned Tuesday night and "Vote Trump" was spray-painted on an exterior wall.
He wanted to help.
So did thousands of others, he found. Reeves was amazed at the flood of response to the GoFundMe account he organized Wednesday to help rebuild the church, which has about 200 members.
"Burning black churches as a political symbol," he wrote, "makes this event something we must not ignore."
“As a white Southerner, that bothered me a lot,” said Reeves, who describes himself as a “boring office guy,” from North Carolina who now lives in New York.
Wednesday, he tweeted out the link to the funding site and went to a morning meeting. When he checked again, he was stunned.
The campaign “completely blew up,” he said. His goal was $10,000. By Thursday afternoon more than $179,000 has been raised, all of which will be turned over the church.
On the church’s Facebook page, people voiced support from as far away as Canada and the Netherlands.
Pastor Carilyn Hudson called the support “a blessing from God. What happened was a great devastation for the community around us and the church, but it’s good to know God’s love reaches beyond the community. It’s a blessing. “
The fire has been determined to be arson. So far no one has been arrested.
Hudson said she is willing to forgive the arsonist.
“I’m not angry at anybody,” she said. “I know God is good. He will turn that around and make it work for our good. What happened doesn’t interfere with us loving God and believing in Him. Even if and when they find that person, then we being Christians, God has given us a forgiving heart.”
Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown said the church was engulfed in flames by the time units arrived. Brown said the church , which is more than 110 years old, was more than 80 percent destroyed.
“The damage was pretty ugly,” said Reeves. He doesn’t know what motivated the incident. However, “a week before election day, ‘Vote Trump,’ and burning a black church in Mississippi?,” he said in an email. “(It) All sounds very political to me, especially in an election (and from one campaign in particular) that has been pretty relentlessly playing up a white nationalist bent.”
On GoFundMe’s website, people expressed shock and disgust.
“Love>Hate. Sending lots of love”, wrote Claire Deen, who donated $25.
Jill Arnel gave $10. “Yes. I wish I could give more. Thanks for the opportunity to turn my outrage into something more useful.”
Support crossed partisan lines.
Mark R Watson, a Trump supporter, wrote that ” if I was there I would be helping to clean up and re-build this church; AND I want to see the disgusting waste of air person(s) responsible brought to justice. KKK, Nazis, ALL of them need to evolve or leave the planet …. I will donate as soon as I get paid. God bless you all.”
Violence against black churches has long been used as an intimidation tactic by white supremacists. One of the most horrific incidents was the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four little African-American girls and injured others who were attending services. Later, three white supremacists were convicted of murder.
In 2015 nine members of “Mother” Emanuel AME Church in Charleston were slain during Bible study by a white man who hoped to start a race war.
About the Author
