RACIAL JUSTICE COMPONENT
OF THE BURNED CHURCHES PROJECT
In August 1997 the National Council of Churches opened the second phase of its Burned
Churches Project under the active executive leadership of NCC General Secretary Dr. Joan
Brown Campbell. In Phase ll, the project will be administered operationally as an inter-unit
project with specific responsibilities assigned to National Ministries Unit and Church World
Service and Witness Unit.
The Racial Justice and Reconciliation component of the project will be directed and supervised,
in the short term, out of the Office of the General Secretary. The Church Restoration component
will continue the work begun in Phase l and from August of this year is being administered
through the Emergency Response Office of Church World Service. The assessment process,
grant authorizations, technical assistance, relationships with churches and pastors and volunteer
service will operate with supervision from the Director of Emergency Response. An inter-unit
staff group led by the General Secretary will carry coordination and staff support functions.
Since the last General Assembly, in November 1997, the NCC has awarded some $135,000 in
support grants to a variety of racial justice and anti-hate projects around the country. Among
those receiving support were:
A project to monitor hate group activity over a period of several months in the state of Kentucky.
This project is administered by the Kentucky Council of Churches.
"Reframing the Dialogue on Racism", a program to train young white pastors in understanding
the nuances and subtleties of racism and to prepare them in effective techniques of combating
this sin within their congregations and communities. The leading entity in this project is the St.
Mark's Church in Kansas City, Missouri.
A joint project of black church and community groups in Washington, D.C., to combat juvenile
delinquency.
A nation-wide program to monitor and expose instances of police brutality motivated by racial
animus. This program is administered by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City.
A project to aid women in ministry administered by Rev. Susan Johnson Cook, a member of
President Clinton's Race Advisory Commission.
A march against racism in Columbia, South Carolina (the state with the highest number of black
church burnings) and the construction of a monument to the burned churches on the campus
grounds of Allen University in Columbia.
A project to build and maintain a site on the World Wide Web of the Internet that contains
information on the church burnings and other crimes of hate and which promotes racial dialogue
through this new media.
Currently under active consideration for financial and technical support from the NCC are
several other projects and initiatives that, in one way or other, address issues of racial justice and
reconciliation. Working closely in the coming months with the Ecumenical Networks Working
Group we hope to be able to identify a number of fundable projects around the country.
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