ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996                  TAG: 9605210108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press 

CHURCH BURNINGS SCRUTINIZED CONGRESS TO HEAR TESTIMONY

A congressional committee and civil rights leaders will press federal law enforcement officials today about their investigation of the mysterious burning of black churches in the South.

In the last five years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has investigated 129 church burnings across the United States. A disproportionate number - about 50 - have been the spiritual homes of black congregations in Dixie.

Congress must ``recognize that these burnings don't occur in a vacuum, but in a climate of hostility,'' said SCLC President Joseph Lowery, among the witnesses who will testify before the House Judiciary Committee. ``Some of the blame must fall on that part of the public sector,'' which has blamed ``black people and poor people for the economic uncertainty'' facing the nation.

``The so-called angry white males have been led to believe that affirmative action and welfare are responsible for their economic dilemma'' and that is wrong, said Lowery.

The Judiciary Committee has called some of the nation's top law enforcement officials to testify at today's hearing. Among the witnesses: Deputy Attorney General Duval Patrick, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division; John Magaw, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and Neil Gallagher, head of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division.

``The multi-agency investigation'' of church arson fires has a top priority and has produced some results - 17 of the cases have been resolved, said Myron Marlin, a Justice Department spokesman. Three people in Mississippi and three others in Tennessee received prison terms for setting fires in black churches.

Although there has been a racial motive to some of the church burnings and some people have been convicted of setting more than one fire, no common thread has been found for most of the fires, said Marlin.

Today's hearing is for oversight rather than legislative purposes, said Sam Stratman, a spokesman for Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill.

There are already federal laws on the books against such terrorist acts and hate crimes, he explained. But the committee wants to know whether enough resources are available for the on-going investigations.

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