Survivors Remember Emanuel AME Church Massacre Victims On 10th Anniversary
On June 17, 2015, the lives of parishioners of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, were forever changed.
Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Cynthia Hurd, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor, the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., Myra Thompson, Susie Jackson, and Tywanza Sanders were in a bible study with other members of the congregation, led by Rev. Clementa Pinckney. The group welcomed Dylann Roof, a then 21-year-old white man, into the church to join them in fellowship and prayer. Their kindness was met by a horrific act of violence when Roof drew a rifle and opened fire, tragically killing all nine people.
Now, a decade later, the survivors are reflecting on the tragedy and remembering the loved ones they lost.
Craig Melvin, of NBC’s “Today Show,” interviewed several of the families who were in the church that day and lost loved ones. Malana Pinckney was only six years old when the tragedy took place. Malana’s father was Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people murdered that day. Malana was in a study room with her mother, Jennifer Pinckney, who credits her daughter as the reason why she’s still here with us today.
“By her coming and being with us, [it] kept me in the office,” Jennifer Pinckney told NBC. “Because I knew, six years old, she was not going to sit in a Bible study. She was just going to be running around and wanting to talk, or wanting to eat a snack, or something. So I knew it was best, ‘We’re going to say in the pastor’s study.’ And that’s why I’m here today, is because of her.”
For the Pinckneys, Clementa has never been far from their thoughts. His memory has loomed large as the family has celebrated several milestones over the last year. “Malana went to the prom, Eliana [their other daughter] graduated from college. It’s just been like, ‘Your father should’ve been here to witness and to be a part of all of this that’s going on,’” Jennifer said.
“It is so hard to go through your life and not just let this tear me down for the rest of my life. I have so much that I have to live for, for my mom and for my dad,” Malana told NBC.
Felicia Sanders, Tywanza’s mother, told NBC that she still hasn’t moved on from the tragedy. “You don’t,” Sanders said. “You just have to do what you have to do. I feel sometimes like, even though Dylann Roof got sentenced, I feel like we got sentenced also.”
Roof chose Emanuel AME Church in particular as it’s a historically Black church, and he wanted to start a “race war.” Roof was arrested the day after the shooting in Charleston and was eventually tried and given the death sentence. Despite the horrific, racially motivated nature of his crime, Roof’s attorneys have continually tried to have his death sentence overturned.
Sadly, in the ten years since the shooting, white supremacy has only become more pronounced, with the attitudes expressed by Roof making their way into mainstream politics. While there’s been a decline in hate groups over the last year, that’s largely due to the ideals they espouse being held or, at the very least, tolerated by elected officials and the public at large.
We’ve seen this in the prolonged attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the attempts to whitewash history at national museums, and a white woman actually raising substantial sums of money for calling a child the N-word. To drive home how much Roof’s white supremacist ideals have become normalized, a GOP politician was actually upset with President Biden when he refused to commute Roof’s death sentence.
A memorial has been in progress at the Charleston Emanuel AME Church to honor the nine victims and is open for visitors to pay respects. It’s easy to give in to despair when you look at how much America has given in to its worst impulses over the last decade. Yet, for the sake of those we’ve lost, we have to do our best to strengthen our sense of community and fight back against the incredibly dangerous and deadly forces of white supremacy.
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