Night Riders Burn Black Churches

(Conspiracy Nation, 02/09/06) -- In shocking news, The Times (UK), among others, reports how night riders are bringing fear to the Deep South! "THEY came under cover of darkness... They drove down the back roads... [They looked] for wooden churches in forest clearings... they kicked in their doors and set them alight," reports The Times. The trouble first began in 1996, when "national attention was riveted on what appeared to be a series of arsons directed primarily at black churches, many of them located in the rural south." At the time, Union president Bill Clinton denounced the arsons in strong language. The Confederates however countered, saying the whole story was newspaper hype. Notwithstanding, the Union formed a Church Arson Task Force.

It turned out, when the Task Force finally issued its report, that fears of Ku Klux Klan night riders had been overblown. Unfortunately, by then "Just six newspapers picked up the AP story reporting that black churches were targeted in 225 of the 670 suspicious fires, bombings, or attempted bombings of churches that the task force had tracked since January 1995."

But this time it could be for real! Bill Clinton recalled how, as a mere lad, he had seen the church burnings in Arkansas and been appalled. He and his little friends discussed the matter, and vowed to sit at the back of the bus, to protect terrified blacks.

It has been 10 years now since one of the biggest stories of 1996 astounded the nation. And eerily, the story has been reprocessed anew. "We now know there never was any firm evidence of a church-arson epidemic and no evidence of a racist conspiracy aimed at black churches," writes Mark Tooley. Well, maybe so, but this time "the Rebs" might be in earnest! Who knows!?

Who can forget the Fort Pillow massacre? The Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had attacked 292 black infantry and 285 white troops from Tennessee. Union sources claimed that despite the fact that the Union troops surrendered, Forrest's men massacred them in cold blood, allegedly burning and burying some alive!

Union General Ulysses S. Grant, however, is not impressed by the northern newspapers. He rails against them in his Memoirs:

"Correspondents of the press were ever on hand to hear every word dropped, and were not always disposed to report correctly what did not confirm their preconceived notions." The troops suffered worst of all from "the gibes of many Northern papers that came to them saying all their suffering was in vain, that Vicksburg would never be taken..." A portion of the Northern press "always magnified rebel success and belittled ours..." "What the papers say about relieving me is all a falsehood." "...that political party [Democrats] which furnished all the opposition there was to a vigorous prosecution of the war for saving the Union..."

The last of General Grant's (shown above, standing, hunched over a map) quotes suggests the newspapers under control of the opposition political party were mainly the ones undermining his efforts. Are these same newspapers resurrecting, recycling, and rehashing hysteria from 1996 as part of an election year agenda? Or are they merely trying to sell newspapers? Be that as it may, their lurid reports create anxiety, stress, and fear.

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Conspiracy Nation
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