A Warning?
Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi was set on fire Tuesday night and graffitied with the words that might be seen as a warning to residents of this majority-Black city of about 34,000: “Vote Trump.”Â
While no one was physically injured, photos taken by Delta Daily News reporter Angie Quezada show thick, dark black smoke damage from the windows that are broken. Quezada says the “church has been in this community for decades.”
Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons told Talking Points Memo the attack on the church “is being investigated as a hate crime.” FBI spokesperson Brett Carr told The Clarion Ledger the Bureau “is aware of the situation in Greenville, and we are working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to determine if any civil rights crimes were committed.”
The church’s pastor, Clarence Green, according to Mayor Simmons, “is doing as well as well as one can be doing to come and see his church engulfed in flames.”
“Last night he interestingly had a positive message to say that we cannot solve hate with hate,” Simmons continued. “We gotta love, and just rely on God.”
Almost 8 out of 10 people in Greenville are Black, and Donald Trump has captured a very small portion of the African-American vote.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the church.Â
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Image by Angie Quezada via Twitter