Three historically black churches have burned in Louisiana's St. Landry Parish in 10 days, alongside a fourth predominantly black church that officials said was "intentionally set" ablaze 3 hours north in Caddo Parish, the New York Times reports.
- “There is clearly something happening in this community,” the state’s fire marshal said Thursday.
What's happening: Law enforcement hasn’t ruled out the possibility of arson or that the fires are related, and said they found “suspicious elements” in each case. St. Landry Parish is 56% white and 41% black, and the Times interviewed a reverend of one of the burned churches who said that "relations were generally good between black and white residents." Church burnings were a common, and often unreported, crime in the south during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and earlier.