Charleston meets hate with love

CHARLESTON, S.C. — He hoped, Dylann Roof told his captors, to start a race war.

Instead, all the confessed killer of nine people started, it appears, is an outpouring of love, compassion and forgiveness — even from some of those most devastated by his carnage.

“I want everybody to know you took something precious away from me,” said Nadine Collier, addressing Roof via closed circuit television during his first court appearance Friday. Her mother, Ethel Lance, is among those slain.

Then Collier called on a higher authority to judge Roof.

“God have mercy on your soul,” Collier said. “You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people. May God forgive you. And I forgive you.”

Roof, a thin and dour presence on the screen, stared, expressionless at the camera. He’s 21, unemployed.

In addition to Lance, he is charged with the murders of Clementa Pinckney, a pastor and state senator, and Cynthia Herd, Sharonda Coleman Singleton, Tywanza Sanders, Susie Jackson, Dapayne Middleton-Doctor, Myra Thompson and Daniel Simmons Sr.

They were shot to death during Bible study Wednesday in the basement of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston. For a half-hour Friday, those charges were laid out in sorrowful detail.

Felecia Sanders, mother of the youngest victim, 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, also addressed Roof.

“You have killed some of the most beautiful people I know,” Sanders said. “Every fiber in my body hurts. And I’ll never be the same.”

‘It happened’

Any act of violence has repercussions. These killings have had a galvanic effect.

In Charleston, people from across the city ignored the blazing sun to stand in prayerful silence outside the stately church. A floral tribute — roses from florists, daisies from grocery stores — grew in a colorful mound on the edge of Calhoun Street. As the sun set, many more gathered at the College of Charleston for a ceremony honoring the dead.

Elliott Summey, chairman of the Charleston County Commission, told the assembled throng the Lord was calling on Charleston set an example.

“God wants Charleston to be a lighthouse, because Charleston loves each other,” he said. “God knows how we deal with things like this. We pray in the streets. We comfort each other.”

Earlier in the day, activists in Columbia, the state’s capital, renewed calls that the Confederate flag be permanently lowered from a pole outside the State House. Echoing those calls was South Carolina native Cornell Brooks, national president of the NAACP. He said the organization will also press the U.S. Justice Department to change gun policies.

In Atlanta and elsewhere, pastors, pacifists and people stunned by the violence attended prayer vigils, protested white-supremacy groups and marched for change.

The shootings, said State Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, a Charleston Democrat, were an evil act in a city where church spires are pointed reminders of our better angels.

“It’s a city that has great character and has overcome difficult things in the past and is accustomed to being great,” he said. “It’s in our psyche as Charlestonians to be great.”

But overcoming does not mean forgetting, he said. “We can’t erase it from our history now. It happened.”

Charleston resident Wendell Evans noted that his city has burned, been flattened by an earthquake and flooded by a hurricane. In 2007, it mourned the deaths of nine firefighters caught in a furniture store fire.

Each time, he said, Charleston rose — and will again, gunman be damned.

“By holding on to God’s hand, we’re holding out,” he said.

In Atlanta, people gathered at Big Bethel A.M.E. Church for a “unity and healing vigil.” It took place at 6:30, as the city unwound from another work week. Near Decatur, St. Philip A.M.E. opened its doors for a “prayer for Charleston.”

And, late Friday afternoon, a group calling itself the Atlanta Revolution Club mustered at the Five Points MARTA station. They urged commuters to protest hate.

“With everything that happened in South Carolina, we’re calling out white supremacy,” said club member Jack Turner.

‘Horrible suffering’

Roof’s family, too, issued a statement expressing horror at his act and invoking hopes of reconciliation.

On Thursday, after police released still photographs of the suspect from surveillance video, Roof’s father and uncle contacted Charleston Police to identify their kin. They told police Roof owns a .45-caliber handgun.

Friday’s statement to the media read: “We have all been touched by the moving words from the victims’ families offering God’s forgiveness and love in the face of such horrible suffering. Our hope and prayer is for peace and healing for the families of the victims, the Charleston community, and those touched by these events throughout the state of South Carolina and our nation.”

But even as many strove to rise above the depths to which Roof reportedly hoped to drag them, some spoke in sterner tones.

Charleston Councilman William Dudley Gregorie, a member of Emanuel, had harsh words for what happened Wednesday night. “I call it racially motivated terrorism,” he said.