Cross burning
In modern times, cross burning or cross lighting is a practice which is associated with the Ku Klux Klan. However, it was practiced long before the Klan's inception. Since the early 20th century, the Klan burned crosses on hillsides as a way to intimidate and threaten black Americans and other marginalized groups.[1][2]
Not to be confused with Croix-de-Feu or Cross and flame. For other uses, see Fiery cross (disambiguation).In France[edit]
Croix-de-Feu (French: [kʁwa də fø], Cross of Fire) was a nationalist French league of the Interwar period.
Legal position in the United States[edit]
In 2003, the Supreme Court of the United States invoked a stage adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake in its Virginia v. Black decision as an example of a display of cross burning that was not intended "to intimidate a person or group of persons" when they struck down a Virginia statute that included the language "Any such burning of a cross shall be prima facie evidence of an intent to intimidate a person or group of persons" because it presumes that the "intent [is] to intimidate."[14]