Church arson tied to racism

Black congregation targeted, police say Three charged with conspiracy

SPRINGFIELD - Three Springfield men, bitter about the election of the nation's first black president and furious in their belief that minorities would gain more rights, torched the partially built church of a black congregation just hours after Barack Obama's landmark victory, authorities said yesterday.

The men - Benjamin Haskell, Michael F. Jacques Jr., and Thomas Gleason Jr., all of whom are white - poured gasoline inside and outside the mostly completed Macedonia Church of God in Christ in the early morning of Nov. 5., set it afire, and later boasted about destroying it, said authorities.

Four days after the fire, which sent a shudder of fear and anger through Springfield's black community, Haskell and Jacques drove to the burnt rubble with an unidentified associate and laughed, according to the affidavit of an FBI agent.

"We did it," Haskell allegedly told the associate, who later cooperated with investigators.....continue