Donald Trump’s racist views have allegedly inspired more hate. According to WLBT, a church in Greenville, Mississippi was burned and vandalized shortly before midnight on Nov. 1 by Trump supporters.
When authorities arrived, they discovered the words “Vote Trump” spray painted on the wall. Hopewell M.B. Church is a predominately Black church that has served the community for 111 years.
Since Trump has decided to run for president, he has used divisive messages that have caused hate groups to gravitate to his campaign. A Black man was sucker punched by a Trump supporter in North Carolina in March; in October, Trump kicked a Black man out of his rally and called him a thug; the Ku Klux Klan’s official newspaper recently endorsed Donald Trump for president; and brawls have broken out at Trump rallies in San Diego, New York, Chicago, California, and even in Brazil.
But the latest church burning shows how Trump and his supporters have used racial intimidation to discourage Black people from voting. It was a tactic implemented during the Jim Crow era where White supremacists would burn and vandalize Black places of worship.
Hill Harper recently shed light on why voting in this election is so important. “Voting in this election is so important because every vote that’s not cast, is a vote for Donald Trump,” Hill said during a recent interview with rolling out. “What I mean by that is, when we think about this election and all the values and issues that the candidates represent, there’s no question that protecting president Obama’s legacy–my brothers keeper, criminal justice reform, the affordable care act, supreme court justice seat — there’s no question, Hillary Clinton is the correct choice for protecting that legacy. Yet, the way the turnout is going, a lot of folks saying, ‘Oh, I may not vote,’ or ‘My vote doesn’t matter.’ That is a critical mistake. We need people to turn out and encourage other people to vote, particularly early voting.”
Trump and his campaign have yet to denounce the act or the church burning at press time. The FBI is currently investigating the church burning and will likely view it as a hate crime.
