In the hours after the Charleston church shooting that left nine dead, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change posted a historic and especially poignant image, a vintage black-and-white photo showing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visiting Emanuel A.M.E. Church, where Wednesday’s shootings occurred.
For the Rev. Bernice King, CEO of King Center, the shooting summoned a painful memory. Her grandmother, Alberta Williams King, was shot and killed while at the organ of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church on June 30, 1974.
“My heart is heavy,” King posted. “Remembering 41 years ago, when my grandmother (dad’s mom) was killed in church.”
In September 1974, Marcus Wayne Chenault Jr. was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of carrying concealed weapons and one count of aggravated assault. Chenault, who later said that he hated Christianity and that God told him to carry out the shooting, died in prison in 1995 at age 44.
Dylann Storm Roof, 21, the suspect sought in the Charleston case, was captured in Shelby, N.C., authorities announced Thursday.
The church tragedy was a heartbreaking shock to Alex Trent and Belle Bynoe, whose plans coincidentally brought them to the King Center in Atlanta on Thursday morning.
“I couldn’t believe it. We just came out here to see the King Center and got that news,” Trent said. “At the end of the day there’s good people and there’s bad people. Good people just need to come together at this point.”
Bynoe and Trent were in the area working on a video for a recording project titled “Stay Alive.”
Bernice King called for change and a nonviolent response to the Charleston shootings , noting Nonviolence 365, an online forum operated by the King Center at choosenonviolence.org/nonviolence365.
“We must interrupt business as usual and change the trajectory of our nation. The soul of our nation must be saved,” she posted. “The best path to save the soul of America and transform our culture is through #Nonviolence365. It’s more than a tactic, it’s a lifestyle.”
Contributing: John Spink. Information from AJC archives also was used in this report.
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