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N the early morning hours ofJune 21, 1990, long after they had put their five children to bed, Russ and Laura Jones were awakened by voices outside their house.'Russ got up, went to his bedroom window and peered into the dark. 2" I saw a glow," he recalled. 3 There, in the middle of his yard, was a burning cross. 4 The Joneses are black. 5 In the spring of 1990 they had moved into their four-bedroom, three-bathroom dream house on 290 Earl Street in St. Paul, Minnesota. 6 They were the only black family on the block. Two weeks after they had settled into their predominantly white neighborhood, the tires on both their cars were slashed. 7 A few weeks later, one of their cars' windows was shattered, and a group of teenagers had walked past their house and shouted" nigger" at their nine-year-old son. 8 And now this burning cross. Russ Jones did not have to guess at the meaning of this symbol of racial hatred. 9 …