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Gary and Aurelia Washington, center, left and right,
the son and granddaughter of Ethel Lance
who died in the Charleston church shooting,
leave a sidewalk memorial in front of Emanuel
AME Church comforted by fellow family members
in Charleston, South Carolina.
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CHARLESTON — Lillian Green dreads the month of June.
It was June two years ago, she said, when her youngest daughter died. And it was June 17, 2015, when nine members of her church, "Mother" Emanuel AME in Charleston, were shot to death during a Bible study by a white gunman driven by what authorities say was racism.
"It's hard," Green said. "I'll be glad when this whole year is over, then maybe things will settle down a little bit."
The Rev. Dr. Betty Deas Clark, the pastor of the historic African-American church, told The Greenville News her congregation "has healed, is healing and will heal."
"There are layers of pain," she said inside her office, a few feet away from where the shootings took place, "layers of hurt and some issues only time will heal."
But she also believes the tragedy has brought positive change.
"I think it has changed the world," she said. "We deal with people being murdered, people being assassinated, even massacred. But to have it done in a church, during Bible study by someone who was befriended by a group of loving people, I think it was a wake-up call, not only for the state but for the world. I think it asked the question, 'What have we come to?'"
Whether South Carolina has changed as a result of the murders and how depends on who is asked.
"Most of South Carolina does not change with a tragedy," Dr. Lonnie Randolph, longtime president of the state NAACP conference, told The News. "I've lived here long enough to criticize it. And I don't criticize all people. But when you have one bad apple, it's one too many. We don't care enough about each other."
Gov. Nikki Haley, who persuaded the Legislature to remove the Confederate battle flag from its perch on the Statehouse grounds as a result of the tragedy, believes the shootings have resulted in a changed South Carolina.
"Everybody stepped up," she said. "I said it multiple times. We didn't have violence, we had vigils. We didn't have protests, we had hugs. We had people stand across the state hold hands. Everybody came together. It was love and forgiveness and grace and strength that I am so proud to have witnessed in my lifetime."
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of Columbia said the shootings have caused "some people to face the impact of the Confederate battle flag and what that symbolizes."
"Some changes have been made," he said. "I still feel we have a long way to go."
The man accused of the murders, Dylann Roof, will be tried both by the federal government and the state. Federal and state prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The federal trial is scheduled to start in November, while the state trial is scheduled for January.
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| Hundreds of people gather for a protest rally against the Confederate flag in Columbia, South Carolina on June 20, 2015. |
Polly Sheppard, Felicia Sanders (Tywanza's mother), and her 5-year old granddaughter survived the shootings.
Aside from the immediate impact to the survivors and family, friends and fellow church members of the victims, perhaps the most visible change caused by the shootings was the lowering of the Confederate flag, which had flown near the Confederate Soldier's Monument since 2000, when another version of the flag was brought down from the Statehouse dome in a legislative compromise.
Haley pushed lawmakers to take it off the Statehouse grounds after online photos surfaced of Roof with the Confederate flag and of him burning the American flag.
"I don't think anyone can see that video of that young man burning an American flag while waving a Confederate battle flag and not see the connection between what his mindset was and what his actions were," Clyburn said. "I think that is why the governor and the Legislature moved so quickly to get the flag off the grounds of the Statehouse."
Several victims' families began foundations in the wake of the shootings. And Charleston community leaders say the murders led to the opening of a dialogue about race relations.
The shootings also prompted a series of gun-control bills, though none passed, including several to expand background checks of those attempting to buy guns at firearms stores. Roof was able to purchase his handgun, according to the FBI, even though he should have been disqualified because the FBI could not locate certain records involving charges against Roof in the three-day period allowed for background checks.
Randolph argues that last year's tragedy has its roots in the culture that triggered the Civil War and sparked the state to raise the Confederate flag in the early 1960s as many in the state protested integration and civil rights efforts. "The summary of that event is what happened in June of last year," he said. "It was a disaster that also was predictable."
While he said the removal of the Confederate flag, long the subject of an NAACP boycott, was good, he also believes it was largely symbolic.
"We were so far behind, I don't think it changed a lot," he said.
Clyburn said he doesn't think the state or the country have yet come to grips with the issue of race.
"If we continue to postpone having a serious discussion and acceptance of what race means in our country and our state, we will continue to have these kinds of problems to develop over a period of time," he said. "We just need to see the relationship between what we say and do."
Rep. Joe Neal, a pastor and Democrat from lower Richland County, said he saw the tragedy change some minds in the Statehouse, resulting in the removal of the flag.
But that does not mean the change extended to other areas, he said, including race relations.
"We still have a segment of our population that still have a problem with race," he said. "And race is the one issue that as a state we have not been able to talk about in any substantive way, outside of the flag."
In the 1960s and 1970s, he said, South Carolina largely avoided violent protests over integration and civil rights because of strong black and white leaders who maintained a dialogue. That leadership is needed again, Neal said.
He said one symptom of the state's lack of adequate race relations has been the weakening of the State Human Affairs Commission, which he said was created to allow people to file complaints of racial discrimination.
"I think that's a symptom of how the state has looked at the issue of race and kind of pushed it aside," he said.
Rep. Todd Rutherford, the leader of Columbia Democrats, said he believes the Charleston massacre resulted in the flag's removal, which he said is "not insignificant."
"I think the legacy of that flag coming down will be paying dividends for decades to come," he said. "I truly believe that the massacre has changed lives forever. But how so is kind of hard to articulate because it's the small things that don't hit you every day but they're ever-present."
But in terms of the state's politics, he said, "I honestly don't think we have changed that much." He said he also hasn't seen change in race relations.
"I think initially it had a huge impact because people were willing to talk about it," he said. "But I'm afraid we have shrunk back into our cocoons and are continuing the lack of dialogue between races that needs to happen for us to move forward together."
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| The most infamous of mass shootings this year occurred in Charleston, when a white male was accused of walking into Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and shooting to death eight black parishioners and their pastor, Sen. Clementa Pinckney, after a Bible study meeting. A federal grand jury indicted Dylann Roof on hate-crimes and other charges, and federal prosecutors have alleged Roof had racial motives in his attacks. |
Sen. Karl Allen, a Greenville Democrat, said he believes that what was meant as something "bad has turned into good by way of the citizenry of South Carolina."
"The people of South Carolina came together and instilled a spirit of togetherness to tackle issues," he said. "I find that the General Assembly as well as the public have a spirit of cooperation and togetherness that we're continuing to see. The divisive spirit is not as strong as it may have been."
He said that spirit is being led this year by students at Clemson University, who protestedafter bananas were hung from an African-American history poster, and by students at The Citadel, where some cadets were disciplined after being photographed wearing white hoods resembling those of the Ku Klux Klan.
"We should take a page out of their book," he said.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Larry Martin, a Pickens Republican, said he thinks the shootings brought "fundamental change in some respects."
"I think we're hopefully a little more respectful of everyone, not quite as vitriolic," he said. "For the most part, the people I have interacted with since that time have told me we responded in a positive way to an awful situation."
He said while the hope was that attitude would carry over to every debate, "we haven't done that but I do think we're more sensitive to other perspectives and different philosophies."
He cited his differences with Sen. Marlon Kimpson, a Charleston Democrat, over Kimpson's push for a hearing this year on expanded background check legislation as an example. Martin opposes the legislation and declined to approve of a hearing while the Legislature was in session. He apologized in the General Assembly's final weeks and a hearing is expected to be held this summer in Charleston.
"I probably shouldn't have carried it to quite the extent I did in the Spring and not give Sen. Kimpson that hearing on his bill," he said.
Kimpson, asked about changes as a result of the shootings, said symbolism is important and "in that regard there has been change for the better."
"However, there remains a big divide in South Carolina, namely along racial and economic lines," he said. "As we move forward, we must be dedicated to the hard work that lies ahead of us to bridge the divide that polarizes the state."
Clark, Emanuel's pastor, said people continue to stop by the church "to say they care, to say their hearts were broken as ours were."
"They are showing compassion," she said.
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