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Church arson is the burning or attempting to burn of religious property. It was common in black churches in south of the United States around the 1960s during the civil rights struggles. Arson continued to proliferate, especially in the 1990s, damaging many black churches. As a result, Congress passed the Church Arson Prevention Act in 1996. In addition, President Bill Clinton formed the National Church Arson Task Force, who also referred to themselves as Task Force, due to the sharp increase in church arson. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a division originally a part of the Treasury Department, but now a part of the Department of Justice, was created in 1972 to investigate arsons in general.

History of Church Arson
Within the Hate Crime Statistics Act, blacks are one of the groups currently included in it that receive the most hate crimes of any type—one of which is arson to their places of worship. An African-American scholar and historian, C. Eric Lincoln, wrote in his book, Coming Through the Fire: Surviving Race and Place in America, that the first recorded church arson to a black church happened in 1822 in South Carolina. These kind of arsons also occurred in Cincinnati in 1829 and through the 1830s in Philadelphia by white mobs. Years after the Civil War, around the 1950s and 1960s, as civil rights activism and the desegregating of public places such as schools and restaurants were starting to increase, so was the burning and bombing of black churches. A more notorious bombing during that time happened to the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where for young girls were killed. Church arson continued to be a problem in the South in the early 1990s among African American churches with the culprits generally being young, white males with racism as their driving force and being under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Although arson began happening at white churches in January of 1995, it was still more directed towards black churches. The motive for these church burnings began crossing from racial hatred to other motives such as revenge, vandalism, and the influence of media. For example, a gang of Georgia teenagers who were high school dropouts, robbed, vandalized, and burned a total 90 churches that were both black and white. When interrogated, they told the police that if they couldn’t get money, they vandalized or burned the place as a result of this.

Church Arson Prevention Act
The S. 1980 (104th): Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 was introduced to Congress on June 19, 1996, but died because the Senate’s Committee found some places for improvement of the bill. It was sponsored by Republican Duncan "Lauch" Faircloth. In the same year on May 23, 1996, the House of Representatives introduced H.R. 3525 (104th): Church Arson Prevention Act. The Act was then passed by both houses in Congress and then signed by President Bill Clinton on July 3, 1996. This bill became law number Pub.L. 104-155. This was sponsored by Republican Henry Hyde. The bill was summarized by the Congressional Research Service as follows: “[the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996] makes Federal criminal code prohibitions against, and penalties for, damaging religious property or obstructing any person’s free exercise of religious beliefs applicable where the offense is in, or affects, interstate commerce.” One of the changes in the bill was the sentence increase for “defacing or destroying any religious real property because of race, color, or ethnic characteristics…” from 10 to 20 years. It also changed the statute of limitations from five years to seven years after the date the crime was committed. It reauthorizes the Hate Crimes Statistics Act.

The National Church Arson Task Force
President Bill Clinton created the National Church Arson Task Force, also known as Task Force or NCATF, to look for any connections among the church arsons and help take off some loads of overburdened state and local police forces. According to a first year report to the President in June of 1997, opened investigation to 429 cases of arson, bombings, or attempted bombings of churches since January 1, 1995. In a second year report in October of 1998 to the President, they opened 241 more cases that happened between January 1, 1995 and September 8, 1998 making a total of 670 opened investigations. In a third year report in January of 2000 to the President, NCATF opened investigation to another 157 cases making it a total of 827. They helped to solve many of these arson and bombing cases. The Task Force is now disbanded, but ATF continues to investigate church burnings that occur. The number of church arsons decreased drastically (82 percent) from 1,320 in 1980 to 240 in 2002 according to the National Fire Protection Association.