390
Thomas, J., dissenting
Indeed, the connection between cross burning and violence is well ingrained, and lower courts have so recognized:
"After the mother saw the burning cross, she was crying on her knees in the living room. [She] felt feelings of frustration and intimidation and feared for her husband's life. She testified what the burning cross symbolized to her as a black American: 'Nothing good. Murder, hanging, rape, lynching. Just anything bad
sought to discourage blacks from using public park by burning a cross in the park, as well as by "waving baseball bats, axe handles, and knives; throwing rocks and bottles; veering cars towards black persons; and physically chasing black persons out of the park"); Cox v. State, 585 So. 2d 182, 202 (Ala. Crim. App. 1991) (defendant participated in evening of cross burning and murder), cert. denied, 503 U. S. 987 (1992); R. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate 847 (2002) (referring to a wave of "southern bombings, beatings, sniper fire, and cross-burnings" in late 1956 in response to efforts to desegregate schools, buses, and parks); Newton & Newton 21 (observing that "Jewish merchants were subjected to boycotts, threats, cross burnings, and sometimes acts of violence" by the Klan and its sympathizers); id., at 361-362 (describing cross burning and beatings directed at a black family that refused demands to sell the home); id., at 382 (describing incident of cross burning and brick throwing at home of Jewish officeholder); id., at 583 (describing campaign of cross burning and property damage directed at Vietnamese immigrant fishermen); W. Wade, The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America 262-263 (1987) (describing incidents of cross burning, beatings, kidnaping, and other "terrorism" directed against union organizers in the South); id., at 376 (cross burnings associated with shooting into cars); id., at 377 (cross burnings associated with assaults on blacks); 1 R. Kluger, Simple Justice 378 (1975) (describing cross burning at, and subsequent shooting into, home of federal judge who issued desegregation decisions); Rubinowitz & Perry, Crimes Without Punishment: White Neighbors' Resistance to Black Entry, 92 J. Crim. L. & C. 335, 342, 354-355, 388, 408-410, 419, 420, 421, 423 (Fall 2001-Winter 2002) (noting that an "escalating campaign to eject a [minority] family" from a white neighborhood could begin with "cross burnings, window breaking, or threatening telephone calls," and culminate with bombings; describing other incidents of cross burning accompanied by violence); Cross Burned at Manakin, Third in Area, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Feb. 26, 1951, p. 4, App. 318 (describing 1951 Virginia cross burning accompanied by gunfire).
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