The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was the site of a hate crime Wednesday night, according to Charleston police, when nine people were killed.
Known as "Mother Emanuel," the church is considered a symbol of black freedom to many people in the South. Here are the six things to know about the history of the church, according to The Washington Post, CNN and the church's website.
1. Morris Brown founded the church in 1816 following a dispute over a burial ground in Charleston's Methodist Episcopal Church. More than 75 percent of the city's black community joined him.
2. The church was investigated in 1822 for its involvement in a slave revolt led by Denmark Vesey, one of the church's founders. Vesey, who was raised in slavery in the Virgin Islands, planned the revolt for June 16, but authorities were alerted and the revolt was stopped. Those involved in the scheme – nearly three dozen people, including Vesey – were put on trial and executed.
3. That same year, the building was set ablaze. Worshippers rebuilt the church and held services until 1834, when all-black churches were outlawed by the South Carolina Legislature. Undiscouraged, the congregants gathered in clandestine meetings until the end of the Civil War in 1865, when they formally reorganized and adopted the name Emanuel meaning "God with us."
4. An earthquake in 1886 destroyed the church. The existing church was built in 1891 and redecorated between 1949 and 1951.
5. Many prominent figures have spoken at the church throughout the years, including Booker T. Washington in 1909, Martin Luther King Jr. in 1962 and Coretta Scott King in 1969.
6. On Wednesday night, almost 193 years after the planned revolt, police said a gunman opened fire, killing nine people, including a state senator. Police arrested Dylann Roof, 21, on Thursday in Shelby, N.C.
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