'Vote Trump' painted on outside of burned Mississippi church

published 3 November 2016

A fire at the Hopewell Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, is being investigated as a hate crime, with Mayor Errick Simmons saying he won't "rest until the culprit is found and fully prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Hopewell Baptist is a historical black church with 200 members, and the fire has "left our hearts broken," Pastor Carolyn Hudson told NBC News. When firefighters arrived Tuesday night at around 9:15 p.m., they found the main sanctuary up in flames and "Vote Trump" spray painted on an outside wall. Hudson said the church hasn't received any threats recently. Investigators believe this is an act of arson, and the city's police chief said that while there is no surveillance footage of the fire being set, they are talking with a person of interest. No arrests have been made.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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