Five years after Mother Emanuel shooting, some pastors continue call for change

Local pastors say more conversations need to be had around gun violence and racial tension

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WOLO) — Five years ago, nine people were killed during a prayer group meeting inside the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

Even though years have passed since the tragedy that moved a nation, some local pastors say no meaningful change has taken in place since the events of June 17, 2015.

Growing up in Charleston, Rev. Carey Grady spent a lot of time around the Mother Emanuel AME Church.

When he first learned about the shooting that fateful June night at a church close to his heart, he says it was one of the greatest shocks of his life.

“I just didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it, but then I got online, and then I started getting telephone calls from my relatives, then I realized, this was real,” Rev. Grady said.

Now the pastor at Reid Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) Church in Columbia, Grady says since the shooting, doors are locked during services and additional security procedures are in place. Sometimes, he says members of the congregation drive around the church or walk along church grounds to make sure everything is safe.

However, he says the Mother Emanuel shooting should have been a catalyst for nationwide change.

“The whole tragedy should have changed things,” Rev. Grady said. “I mean, people were praying eyes closed, just terrible. But if you look at society and culture, I don’t think a lot has changed.”

Grady and other pastors point at gun violence and racial tensions as the major issues continually gripping their communities. He pointed at the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, among others, as the reasons why things should change. 

One thing that some would like to see in the immediate future is the passage of a hate crime bill.

“South Carolina is one of the four states in America that has not approved a hate crime bill,” said Bishop Samuel L. Green Sr., the leader of the 7th District AME Church, which oversees all AME churches in South Carolina.

State lawmakers have put forward hate crime bills over the past year. Several state representatives pre-filed a bill back in November, while Sen. Darrell Jackson (D-Richland County) proposed similar legislation back in August.

Both bills are currently sitting in their respective chambers’ Judiciary committees.

Bishop Green says it will take some time to build togetherness, but he says a little bit of compassion, like what was shown in the days following the tragedy in Charleston, would be a good place to start.

“If everybody in the United States would learn how to have the capacity to love like the family members and the survivors and the families of the survivors, this world would begin to move toward healing,” Bishop Green said.

Several local pastors are planning on honoring the victims of the shooting while standing up for inequality in a march from Allen University to the State House Saturday at noon. Several pastors are expected to take part, as well as House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, and State Rep. Jerry Govan (D-Orangeburg Co.), the head of the Legislative Black Caucus.