It’s been five years since one of the most heinous racial killings in U.S. history when a white supremacist murdered nine worshippers at …
It’s been five years since one of the most heinous racial killings in U. S. history when a white supremacist murdered nine worshippers at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S. C. The massacre shocked the nation and prompted a racial dialogue in the city.
Those same issues resonate today amid the national outcry over recent incidents of police brutality.
Ethel Lee Lance,70, was at Emanuel AME for Wednesday night Bible study on June 17,2015 when a white stranger showed up, her daughter, Rev. Sharon Risher recounts.
„They welcomed him in,“ Risher says. „He sat there and listened to this whole Bible study. And when they were in a circle holding hands in prayer is where he took out his Glock 45 and commenced to shooting and killing them like they were animals.“
He fired 70 rounds. Risher’s mother, two cousins, and a childhood friend were among the nine people killed. They include: Clementa C. Pinckney,41; Cynthia Graham Hurd,54; Susie J. Jackson,87; DePayne Vontrease Middleton-Doctor,49; Tywanza Kibwe Diop Sanders,26; Daniel Lee Simmons Sr.,74; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton,45, and Myra Singleton Quarles Thompson,59. Three others survived: Felicia Sanders, her granddaughter, and Polly Sheppard.
Risher says the killer intended to snuff them out because of who they represented.
„Just like everybody else that’s been killed because of hate and race, we need to continue to remind people that we continue to be hurt when all we want to do is be a people that could thrive like everybody else,“ Risher says.
Lessons learned from Charleston massacre
Risher has written a book about finding hope after the Charleston massacre and travels the country telling her story. Now she questions whether the nation has learned anything in the past five years since the shooting.
She says recent police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta show a systemic disregard for black lives.
„I’m just weary,“ Risher says. „Even though I know everybody is not a racist and there are people in this country that do want racial harmony, it’s just so much to get through. You wonder. How long? Just how long?“
Emanuel AME is known as Mother Emanuel. Formed in 1816, it’s one of the oldest black churches in the South, and survived being burned down for its role in an 1822 slave revolt.
