VA Man Gets 18 Months In Prison For Burning Cross In Front Yard

MARION, VIRGINIA — A Virginia man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after burning a cross in the front yard of an African American family in June 2020.

James Brown, a 41-year-old white man from Marion in southwestern Virginia, was sentenced in federal court in Roanoke on Friday.

On June 14, 2020, police were called to a home when witnesses saw a fire coming from a barrel in the front yard. One of the family members had organized a civil rights protest earlier the day before in Marion, according to court documents.

Brown, who lived across the street from the family, pleaded guilty in April to criminal interference with federally protected housing rights based upon the victim’s race.

“When Brown burned a cross in the victim’s front yard, he carried out a despicable act of intimidation, interfered with a federally protected housing right, and broke a serious federal law,” Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Bubar said in a statement Friday.

“Today’s sentence demonstrates that such threatening acts of hatred will be swiftly investigated and prosecuted,” Bubar added.

Brown admitted to burning the cross to two witnesses and also was known to use racial epithets when referring to the African American family. At his guilty plea hearing, Brown admitted he had burned the cross in order to threaten and intimidate the African American family.

“This appalling crime, which recalls the kind of terrorism faced by the Black community throughout the Jim Crow era, reminds us that racist hate is still with us,” Council on American-Islamic Relations National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement Monday. “We welcome the sentencing of the perpetrator and urge law enforcement to take every hate crime case seriously and apply appropriate charges and punishments.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Marion Police Department and the Smyth County Sheriff’s Office participated in the investigation of the case.