Louisiana black churches defiant amid string of fires

OPELOUSAS, La. — Much of Monica Harris’ identity as a black woman is tied to the Greater Union Baptist Church, a 129-year-old sanctuary that has been at the center of her family for generations. As a child, she was dunked into a baptismal basin and then paraded like a princess up the aisle in a white dress and white patent leather shoes. She was married at the church, and she said goodbye to her parents there, too.

And so she felt like a piece of her was missing when she set eyes upon the charred remains of Greater Union, one of three predominantly black churches in the Opelousas area that law enforcement said were set ablaze and destroyed over the stretch of 10 days.

“Seeing the church in the condition it is now,” Harris, 57, said of the tan brick sanctuary where her parents raised their 12 children and celebrated dozens of weddings and funerals and attended Bible studies, “it’s almost like losing a family member.”

It was still not known Monday whether the fires — which occurred March 26, this past Tuesday and Thursday in St. Landry Parish, La. — were intentionally set or whether they were motivated by racism. Still, they have drawn the attention of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, which are assisting the Louisiana state fire marshal. Officials said Monday they were vetting new information every hour and that an ATF crane had arrived at one of the churches to help process the scene.

Over the weekend, as officials worked to sort out what happened, black residents gathered for services with a mix of befuddlement, concern and defiance.

“They burned down a building,” the Rev. Harry Richard of Greater Union preached at a makeshift gathering Sunday in Opelousas. “They didn’t burn down our spirit.”

Two of the fires were in Opelousas — at Greater Union and Mount Pleasant Baptist — and the third was at St. Mary Baptist in Port Barre. Officials reported a fourth, smaller fire that was “intentionally set” at a predominantly white church in Caddo Parish, about three hours north.

The blazes have evoked uneasy recollections of racist attacks on black churches across the country. But parishioners and residents said they would also let the investigation unfold before making any judgments about what the fires might say about their community, which is just north of Lafayette.

“We are a very close-knit society here in St. Landry Parish,” said Elbert Guillory, 75, who is black and a lawyer and former Republican state senator from Opelousas.