Sarah Fowler

The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger

GREENVILLE, Miss. — News of a black church set ablaze in the Mississippi Delta with “Vote Trump” scrawled in white spray paint on the side made national headlines as rumors and assumptions quickly swirled.

The fire, labeled a “hate crime” by many, evoked memories of 1960’s Mississippi.

However, some locals aren’t so sure.

Born and raised in Greenville, Miss., Deborah Jackson, who is African American, said she does not feel the fire Tuesday was started “in racial hate.”

“I think it was a cowardly act but at this point I don’t think it was a hate crime,” she said. “I feel like if it was going to be done as a hate crime, it would have been done in a different area. It’s not out in the open. This is in a secluded area. You would not know that church is over there unless you turned and went around there.”

Butting against railroad tracks in an older, wooded neighborhood, Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church is nestled on the back of a U-shaped street. Located off one of the main thoroughfares in Greenville, several people walked by the church in an hour span Thursday; some to see the damage, many just passing through.

'Vote Trump' painted on burned Miss. black church

The front doors and several windows around the church are boarded up; yellow crime scene tape warns onlookers to stay back. The pitch of the roof sags; it has come apart from the supporting bricks. It’s unclear if cracks in the building are from the fire or age. Soot has blackened the windows but the white steeple stands tall above the damage, unscathed.

Next door, 23-year-old Kilean Coleman sat on his mother's front porch swing Thursday afternoon. The smell of smoke still hung in the air, the grass still saturated from the flood of water firefighters used to extinguish the blaze.

“It’s scary and shocking and then it’s right beside my mom’s house, so I’m paranoid a whole lot,” said Coleman, who wasn't visiting his mother when the fire started.

Coleman, who is black, said he doesn’t believe the fire was started for racial reasons.

“They say it had something to do with racism but honestly I believe it was somebody close around here,” he said. “People say it was like some racist stuff but honestly, I feel like a black person did it."

Coleman said, because of the location of the church, people notice everyone who comes and goes.

“We don’t never see no white people out here, never,” he said. “If we see a white person around here, we’ll notice it. We can count them on one hand. They don’t come around here too much, every blue moon.”

He added, “I feel like if it was a white person, somebody would have noticed it.”

Greenville, residents black and white said the church fire was a tragedy but questioned if it was motivated by race.

“Most people here don’t look at race as much as most people think we do,” said store owner Miles Cobb. “To me, Greenville is not that. It’s not a race thing. I think it was just vandals being vandals. ... We have strengthened the bonds of both black and white. Too many people have come together as a whole.”

Cobb, who is white, said he feels the fire will help further unify the residents of Greenville.

Lucille Brown and her family were shopping at Cobb's store Thursday.

Brown, who is black, believes that, while it’s “highly possible” the church burning was because of race, said, “that’s not us.” It's also not reflective of the state as a whole, she said.

“It’s not just a Mississippi thing," he said. "All across the country you have acts such as those, and I think in Mississippi, as you try to rise above, everybody is not going to be nice, everybody is not going to be communal, everybody is not going to be friendly. You’re going to have some good people, you’re going to have some bad people everywhere but because this is Mississippi and because it happened here, that makes us sound just bad.”

Referring to Cobb, Brown said, “I know that we are his customers, but he didn’t treat us like we are his customers. He treated us like, ‘Hey, we’re people.’ So, that’s what we do. We don’t look at each other and judge each other by appearance. To say that this is Mississippi and this is Greenville and it’s racist, it’s happens everywhere. Don’t just say it happens here."

Fires at black churches raise concern

Across the street, Teresa Ray, who is white, was also concerned about how the city was being portrayed nationally.

“It may have been racist on their part but not our part, not on the whole town's part,” said Ray. “It’s how people want to portray it, how they like to talk about the South being racist.”

Jackson said she can’t fathom who would want to harm a place of worship, but she has faith the people of Greenville, black and white, will come together.

“We’re going to have crime, we’re going to have trials and tribulations, but it’s how you go through it. We’ve got to be strong.”

Follow Sarah Fowler on Twitter: @FowlerSarah