Is Cross-Burning Constitutionally Protected Speech, Or Racial Intimidation and Hatred?
That same day, the Supreme Court held a hearing on whether states can ban cross burning. Justice Clarence Thomas, who rarely utters a word in court, passionately denounced cross-burnings. He said: “the cross was the symbol of this reign of terror” for more than a century. There was no other purpose for the cross. It was intended to cause fear and terror.” He said, “It is unlike any symbol in our society.” At issue is a 1952 Virginia law that makes it a crime to burn a cross or intimidate someone. Three white men in two separate cases were convicted of the offense in 1998. In one case in August 1998, some twenty people gathered on private land for a rally that concluded with Ku Klux Klan members setting on fire a 30-foot cross made of metal and covered in cloth. The leader of that group was Barry Elton Black, the leader of a Pennsylvania branch of the Ku Klux Klan, who preaches racial separatism and doesn’t invite people of color into his home. In another case, two Virginia men, Richard
