(Reuters) A black church in Mississippi was burned and spray-painted with “Vote Trump,” officials said, and the FBI said it was looking into the incident, which comes one week before the U.S. presidential election.
No one was injured in the Tuesday (Nov. 1) evening blaze at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, and the cause of the fire has not been determined, Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown Sr. said in a telephone interview.
Black churches in the South have long been a base of support for the Democratic Party.
The town of about 33,000 people is about 100 miles northwest of Jackson.
“The FBI Jackson Division is aware of the situation in Greenville, and we are working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to determine if any civil rights crimes were committed,” the agency said in a statement.
Brown said the church was heavily damaged by the fire.
In October, the Orange County Republican Party’s office in Hillsborough, N.C., was set on fire and a graffiti message left nearby said “leave town or else.”
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz)