Thousands march on Charleston bridge in honor of church victims
Thousands of people have marched across Charleston's main bridge in South Carolina to honor the victims of a mass shooting at a historic black church last week.
Crowds gathered on either side of Arthur Ravenel Bridge on Sunday evening in honor of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a state legislator and pastor at the Emanuel African-American Episcopal Church, and eight other churchgoers, who were gunned down during a Bible study meeting on Wednesday.
“Our seed is more powerful than a bullet,” the Rev. William Swinton Jr. told a crowd gathered at Ebenezer AME church, according to The Washington Post.
“The funds will be used as a scholarship to help young people fight racism and all the evil things of society through education. They will look back and know that we did something more than cried,” he said.
People on the bridge, and many more at the base, joined hands to create a “unity chain,” and then held a moment of silence in memory of the victims.
Police estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 took part in Sunday’s gathering.
Dylann Roof, 21, joined the Bible study at the Emanuel AME Church on Wednesday and stayed an hour with the eventual victims before removing a gun from a small pack he was wearing. The white man went on a shooting rampage, killing eight African Americans on the spot. Another victim later died in hospital.
Roof was arrested Thursday in North Carolina and charged on Friday with murdering nine people.
The attack has reignited the debate about racism and gun violence in America.
According to authorities in South Carolina, the attacker left a racist manifesto on his website, "The Last Rhodesian," which was registered under Roof's name.
President Barack Obama renewed his call for gun control in an address a day after the shooting.
"I don't need to be constrained about the emotions tragedies like this raise," he said. "I've had to make comments like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.”
“It is in our power to do something about it,” Obama stated.
HRJ/HRJ
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