Literacy Foundation Named in Honor of Church Shooting Victim

Cynthia Graham Hurd

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -A literacy foundation has been formed in honor of one of the victims of the Charleston church shootings who worked as a librarian more than 30 years.

Local media outlets report the Cynthia Graham Hurd Foundation for Reading & Civic Engagement will work to encourage reading, especially among children from low-income families.

Hurd was a longtime employee of the Charleston County Public Library System and was one of the nine victims of the Emanuel AME Church shootings last June.

Organizers say about 80 percent of fourth-graders from low-income families in South Carolina cannot read at grade level and part of the reason is they don’t have books.

The foundation’s first effort will be a book drive to collect books in both Charleston and in Charlotte, North Carolina, next month.