‘Mother Emanuel’ is a history of the Charleston church, 10 years after shooting : NPR

Charleston, Southern Carolina – June 17, Emanuel African Methodist Bishops Church 10 years since a deadly shooting. A white superiority intending to start a race war, opened fire on Wednesday night during the Bible, praying nine black worshipers and killed their heads as they spinted.

“I was here the night of his night, but I left and damaged it,” Theodora Watson, a church member for a long time, says.

“I still don’t forgive him because you’ve got something from us and this church,” says Shooter Dylann Roof, now the order of federal death for murders.

Church member Theodora Watson at the Emanuel African Methodist Bishops Church on June 2, 2025.

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Church bells pass twice a day, nine times, now one of the black worshipers, now known as Emanuel 9. They Rev. Clementa PinCkney, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons, Sharonda-Smra Myra. The other five people survived – Polly Sheppard, Tywanza’s mother Felicia Sanders and grandson Jennifer PinCkney, the grandson and the priest’s wife.

Cynthia Hurd’s brother Melvin Graham says, “The church was violated.” “The family was violated, the community was violated.”

Even after ten years, the memories are difficult for the congregation to meet foreigners as their fresh and beliefs demand.

Cynthia Graham Hurd, the brother of Cynthia Graham Hurd, one of the nine black worships killed in Emanuel Ame He’s wearing a charm with Cynthia’s image in his necklace. Im When it was performed, I promised to be his voice, or he says.

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Current priest Rev. “I’m trying to help people understand that we are still trauma as a church,” Eric Manning says. “Every day I come to a scene of a crime. The area where people lost their lives.”

Correspondent Kevin Sack’s new book, known as “Anne Emanuel”, is known for his role, looking at the historical heritage of the oldest black community in the South.

“When taking the next time New York TimesI was impressed by the incredible rich history of this place, Sac Sack NPR said.

Titled Anne Emanuel: Two centuries of race in a Charleston church, resistance and forgivenessSack’s new book tells the story that Sun Emanuel has been in the forefront of the struggle for racial justice since it was founded in a “brave destruction act” by the Free African-Americans in the 1800s.

Rev. Manning says that healing can only come if the congregation leans on this tradition.

Rev. Eric Manning says Anne Emanuel’s heritage is “a light on the way to darkness”.

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“We must be intentional to make sure we have a hope, flexibility and restoration message.”

These themes – hope, flexibility and restoration – from NPR to Debbie Elliott, the historical sacred area of ​​the polished rows of NPR’den Dubbie Elliott’a, as Kvin Sack’s mother touches the biography of Emanuel Ame.

Author Kevin Sack (R) interviewed a book broadcast event at the Emanuel Ame Church of Charleston, SC on 2 June 2025.

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The following change is slightly arranged for length and clarity.

Interview important points

Debbie Elliott: This is not just the story of that tragic moment and that disgusting crime. How do you describe what you are trying to do with this book?

Kevin Sack: I was deeply impressed by what happened here that night. For two centuries, Charleston began to reveal that it was a way to use a much wider, wider, larger African-American life story. The property, where this building was built, is dated until 1865. However, there was only a pioneering community known as the African Church and dating back to 1818. And he was created during a brave destruction during enslavement. The free and enslaved black methodists withdrew from the white controlled methodist churches in this city and decided to create an autonomous congregation that we could control and worship as we wish.

Elliott: Was there a symbolism in which Dylann Roof chose this church?

Reporter Kevin Sack said that after a deadly racist attack on the church ten years ago, he had moved to writing “two -centuries of race, resistance and forgiveness in a Charleston Church.

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Sack: I don’t know what he knew, but he had incredible symbolism. One of the oldest black communities in the south is the oldest African methodist bishopric church in the South. Starting with resistance to slavery, the church played an important role in every big age or movement we documented as part of the struggle for black liberation in this country. In Charleston, there was a slave rebellion known as the Danish vesey conspiracy. People who speak from this pulpit are remarkable. Booker T Washington spoke here in 1909. Web Dubois spoke from this pulpit in 1921. In 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Throughout its history, the church has been a version of protests against oppression and discrimination.

Elliott: This church has produced many politicians for decades, including the priest who was killed on 17 June.

Sack: This is true. Clementa Pinckney, a priest during the filming, was an incredible genius. He was the youngest African American elected to the State Legislative Assembly. He served his fourth period in the state Senate. During the filming, he was considered a man with unlimited possibilities for the future. The tragedy of his life is so short that we see in the civil rights movement where dynamic young leaders are cut before the time.

Kevin Sack’s new book “Anne Emanuel: A two -century race, resistance and forgiveness in a Charleston Church.”

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Elliott: “For a moment, June 17 seemed like the night Dixie died.” How has the idea of ​​Charleston as a kind of model for consensus developed in these last 10 years?

Sack: After this event, a few important symbolic successes came. The flag of confederation flying outside the state house in Columbia was downloaded due to a close relationship between the shooter and the flag. There was also a decision by the Municipal Assembly to apologize for the role of the city in slavery. Interestingly, the vote of this decision was seven to five. I think it was a Charleston before 2015 and Charleston after 2015, and they are not exactly the same place. However, it continues to be a city that works on its way in a very long and very oppressive racial history.