CLEVELAND (AP)—An Ohio man has been indicted on a federal hate crimes charge in what authorities say was a racially motivated arson at a church with a mostly Black congregation.

The two-count indictment against Ronald Pudder, 23, of Conneaut in northeast Ohio, was detailed at a news conference Sept. 22 with the nation’s top civil rights attorney, Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

He said the government was determined to deter a rash of copycat crimes.

“Hate crimes reflect a cancer of the soul,” Perez said.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP)— Nearly 400 protesters marched to the governor’s mansion and the Mississippi Capitol to call for the release of two sisters who are serving life sentences for a robbery that netted $11.

PROTEST LIFE SENTENCES—Civil rights activist Dorothy Benford of Jackson, waves a sign with $11 in singles hanging from it to protest the life sentences Jamie and Gladys Scott received for a robbery that netted that same amount, during a rally at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Sept. 15.

Representatives of the Mississippi ACLU and several other groups joined civil rights veterans in the effort to get a pardon for Jamie and Gladys Scott, who have served nearly 16 years in prison for the 1993 crime in Scott County.

Week of Sept. 24-30

September 24

MILES DAVIS

1957—President Dwight Eisenhower orders federal troops into Little Rock, Ark., to prevent angry Whites from interfering with the integration of the city’s Central High School by nine Black students. The confrontation was one of the most dramatic during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. Governor Orval Faubus had vowed to go to jail to block the court ordered desegregation of the school claiming that Whites would be destroyed if they integrated with Blacks. But the confrontation settled the issue of whether states had to obey orders issued by federal courts.

by Errin Haines

ATLANTA (AP)--Two men have filed a lawsuit accusing Bishop Eddie Long of exploiting his role as pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch to coerce them into sexual relationships when they were young members of his congregation.

In this Jan. 18 2007 file photo, Bishop Eddie Long, of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, in Lithonia, Ga., gestures during an interview in Lithonia.

Lawyers for the men, now 20 and 21, say they filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in DeKalb County Court. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual impropriety.

Craig Gillen, Long's attorney, said Tuesday the pastor "categorically denies the allegations."