Dylann Roof allegedly went into sacred space last week pretending to fellowship with the unsuspecting members of Emanuel AME Church. Roof reportedly sat next to the church’s minister, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, for nearly an hour of the prayer meeting before he carried out his terrorist attack. (Pinckney was also a long time state senator.)
Before the bullets stopped flying, nine African-American church members perished and others were traumatized by the attack. Roof reportedly police that he “almost didn’t go through with it because everyone was so nice to him.”
From all accounts, these victims were some of our best and brightest.
When Roof reportedly chose 87-year-old Susie Jackson as his first shooting victim, her nephew Tywanza Sanders reportedly asked to be shot instead. This young brother had graduated from college last year and had his whole life ahead of him. Yet, according to news accounts, there he stood asking to take a bullet for his aunt who, for all practical purposes, had already lived her life.
Both Jackson and Sanders were shot dead, but what a compassionate act in the face of a merciless coward. I get choked up just writing about it.
Denmark Vesey, one of Emanuel’s founders, organized a slave revolt in 1822. The revolt was exposed when a couple of members of the church shared the plot with authorities before it could be carried out. Vesey and 34 others were executed for the revolt, and the original church was burned to the ground.
For decades, the congregation was forced to go underground, but remained unwavering in its desire to be free and proud citizens of Charleston. Later, Emanuel AME was a key institution for organizing during the Civil Rights Movement.
The Emanuel AME Church massacre is another log on the bonfire of white supremacy. And while some members of the church have already forgiven Roof for his reported terrorist actions, others in Charleston have been moved by the acts of resistance of a proud and determined Denmark Vesey nearly 200 years ago.
In a state that seceded from the Union to continue the practice of slavery, South Carolina has continuously challenged the full citizenship and participation of its black residents. This massacre is an extension of South Carolina’s past and current history of white supremacy. Black South Caroliners have endured the flapping of the Confederate flag in their faces as they fought for the right to vote, to get access to health care or to have decent housing.
The Anti-Racist Collective (ARC) is a local group of white activists who organize around issues of racism. In its statement, ARC reminds us that the Charleston tragedy “is not just the extremists, but something infused into media, criminal justice, education, and countless other mainstream institutions.” Arc points out the massacre didn’t happen in a vacuum but “within the context of hundreds of years of lynchings, mass deaths and violence towards black people in our society.”
I agree with ARC’s call for “white people to end their silence and raise their voices against the continued legacy of violence that our community perpetuates against communities of color.”
This country cannot survive when one sector of the society is violently restricted from attaining their human and civil rights. History has shown us that where there’s repression, there will always be resistance. Another U.S. is possible.
