From Hate to Hallows: Reframing Black Church Arson (HC) (2026)

From Hate to Hallows intervenes in the public discourse surrounding the burning of Black churches in the United States--conversations largely dominated by white, conservative political imaginaries--to provide a critical account of the anti-Black racism and economic exploitation animating these acts of violence. Todne Thomas centers an ethnographic examination of a Knoxville, Tennessee, church that was burned in 2015 as the primary case study of this intervention. By exploring the congregants' experiences and perspectives on the event, Thomas privileges Black meaning-making as a primary source of social and political analysis. She draws on their explanations for the arson to explore the social, historical, and religious contexts of white supremacy, vandalism, gentrification and urban redevelopment, and the End Times as each relate to church burning. From Hate to Hallows challenges the dominant picture of Black church arson as episodic and aberrant events and instead foregrounds them as central moments in the construction of a twenty-first-century United States steeped in racial and economic domination.