Donors raise nearly $170,000 to rebuild black church set on fire

Thousands of donors have helped to raise almost $170,000 in just a couple days to help fix the damage and rebuild Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church.

TheGrio Staff

Nov 4, 2016

On Tuesday evening, the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, was set on fire and vandalized with the words “Vote Trump.” Now, thousands of donors have helped to raise almost $170,000 in just a couple days to help fix the damage and rebuild the church.

The GoFundMe campaign was launched on Wednesday, and by Thursday afternoon had around $169,000, which was far more than its original $10,000 goal.

“I’ve truly been blown away,” campaign organizer Blair Reeves told ABC News. “Donations are coming in from all over the country.”

–Black Mississippi church burned, vandalized with ‘Vote Trump’–

Reeves went on to explain that he felt “compelled” to start the campaign even though he was from New York and not affiliated with the church.

“The animus of this election cycle combined with the potent racial history of burning black churches as a political symbol makes this event something we must not ignore,” he wrote in the campaign’s description. “Only two weeks ago, the internet came together to help repair a North Carolina GOP field office that had been burned by thugs. Justice demands we do the same now.”

According to GoFundMe regional communications manager Kate Cichy.

Bishop Clarence Green of Hopewell M.B. Church “has been added as the beneficiary” to the campaign and “only he can withdraw the funds.”