Foreword
For most Americans, a burning cross evokes images of hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and a dark chapter in American history, when blacks and other minorities feared for their lives at the hands of faceless assailants.Because of the association between cross burning and bigotry, intolerance, and racial violence, 13 States and the District of Columbia have laws banning some form of cross burning. Virginia’s statute, enacted in 1952, originally prohibited cross burning "with the intent of intimidating a person or group of persons" on another’s property. It later was expanded to include cross burning in any public…
