by Michael Fumento

About the author: Michael Fumento, a columnist for Reason magazine, is an attorney who formerly worked with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

“Flames of Hate: Racism Blamed in Shock Wave of Church Burnings,” read the screaming headline in the New York Daily News in the spring of 1996. “The South Is Burning: A Rash of Torchings at Black Churches Has Resurrected the Ugly Specter of Racism,” chimed in the Toronto Star. Newsweek warned of “Terror in the Night Down South,” while USA Today reported that “Arson at Black Churches Echoes Bigotry of Past.” Throughout the media, among public figures, and indeed among most Americans who voiced an opinion on the subject, a consensus had formed by mid-June 1996 that burnings of black churches in...