Three hundred miles west of the deadly shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, Atlantans were mourning too, as if nine of their own had died in worship.
For many it brought back iconic scenes of church violence that wracked the South in the Civil Rights years. For some it was all too personal.
Bernice King, a noted preacher and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s daughter, used her Twitter account Thursday to remember the death of her paternal grandmother 41 years ago this month in a church shooting by a deranged black man in Atlanta. “My heart is heavy,” she said.
Later, she added statements that echoed the conversation across the region, and the nation, about the question of guns in the wrong hands, but most of all, she said, the problem of “immeasurable hate” that “still remains as a heart issue.”
“I think one of the reasons he chose this church was its history,” said Anthea Butler, associate professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Emmanuel AME Church, where the shooting took place, is considered the oldest AME church in the South and is sometimes called “Mother Emmanuel.”
This kind of violence “is part of the history of black religious life in America,” she said. “Churches have gotten burned. Folks have been hanged in front churches. This is part of the 400 year old history of America.”
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, one of the movement’s leaders along with Martin King, preached and mobilized at so many churches across the South that he could not remember whether he had been to Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, though he thought it likely.
“It’s unfortunate that this young man chose a church, but he’s not the first,” said Lowery.
Lowery was brought back to the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four black schoolgirls. “We’ve still got a long way to go to deal with hatred and violence,” he said.
Atlantans across the region called for reflection. St. Luke’s Episcopal and Ebenezer Baptist Church held evening prayer services. Big Bethel AME Church, plans to hold one at 6:30 p.m. Friday at 220 Auburn Ave.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed noted the significance of the Charleston church and said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” by the killings.
The Charleston shooting is a tragic moment for the nation, said the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
However, “if we condemn the act of violence without coming to terms with the larger climate of violence in this nation, we will not respond adequately. We are living in an moment where we are witnessing a deadly cocktail of bigotry and racism with inadequate resources for mental health care and irresponsible guns laws,” he said.
Charles Steele Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, learned of the Charleston shooting as he was driving home from a meeting in Birmingham, where a bomb killed four young African-American girls more than five decades ago.
He said he wasn’t angry but disturbed.
“Everything has changed, but nothing has changed,” Steele said.
Steele knew the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the slain pastor of the historic church and a state senator.
In mid-April, Steele spoke at the church while in town to attend a prayer vigil the police killing of an unarmed black man. His speech was on nonviolence.
The two found common ground and vowed to work together on nonviolence issues in the future. In fact, Steele planned to return in August.
“I feel bad,” he said. “We didn’t get back there soon enough.”
Kendall Trammell contributed to this report.
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