From the ashes

Church Transitions | In a county where African-American homes have been burned to the ground, black and white churches begin the healing process | Emily Belz

Lee Love/Genesis Photos

INDIAN HEAD, Md.—On Feb. 10, Rev. Lucius Ross arrived at his small church, Smith Chapel in La Plata, Md., to find a racial epithet, the n-word, sprayed on the front door. The paint wouldn't come off, so Ross taped brown paper over it. His church was one of four places in the area that had been covered with racially offensive graffiti and swastikas. A week before, other racist graffiti appeared on two area schools.

"Can you be forgiving? Can you not become angered or embittered because of something someone has done?" Ross told me. "Christianity is the process of reconciliation."

Racism weighs heavy on the small towns of Charles County, Md. The sheriff's department has a hate crime task force, and it offered a $5,000 reward for tips on perpetrators of the graffiti. A week later, similar graffiti was sprayed on two local schools. Then, just as the sheriff charged two white men for the graffiti, more racial slurs were sprayed on the walls of another local school.