Relatives of the nine Black churchgoers killed at a 2015 Bible study offered forgiveness within two days. South Carolina still has no hate crimes law.
By EEW Magazine Online Editors
The Emanuel Nine Memorial is seen during a media preview at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (Erik Verduzco/AP)
Two days after her mother was murdered at a Wednesday night Bible study, Nadine Collier faced Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged with killing her mother and eight others. He appeared by video link from jail at his first court hearing in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 19, 2015. Collier, the daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lee Lance, told him, "You took something very precious away from me." Then she told him she forgave him.
On Saturday, Nov. 14, more than 11 years later, the Emanuel Nine Memorial opens to the public beside Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. A white supremacist killed nine Black worshippers there on June 17, 2015, after they welcomed him into their Bible study. Five others survived.
Several relatives offered forgiveness within 48 hours. Eleven years later, the hate crimes bill named for their slain pastor still has not become law. South Carolina and Wyoming remain the only states without a hate crimes law of their own, though federal hate crimes law applies in both.
The memorial fills a courtyard by the church's front door, on ground that was once a parking lot. Michael Arad, the architect of the National September 11 Memorial in New York City, designed it.
At its center sits the Fountain of Grace. Water rises through a cross-shaped opening and spills over a marble rim inscribed with nine names. The fountain symbolizes God's eternal love and mercy, The Associated Press reported. Two curved Fellowship Benches flank it, and their high backs shelter anyone seated there. A white marble Cross of Hope stands nearby with a kneeling bench for prayer.
The Rev. Eric Manning became Mother Emanuel’s pastor after Pinckney’s death and now co-chairs the memorial foundation’s board. After standing at the finished memorial, he told the AP, “Just for a moment, a peace came over me.”
The Rev. Eric Manning, co-chair of the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation board, is interviewed at the Emanuel Nine Memorial at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (Erik Verduzco/AP)
The names belong to the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, 41, Mother Emanuel's pastor and a South Carolina state senator; the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; Cynthia Graham Hurd, 54; Susie J. Jackson, 87; Ethel Lee Lance, 70; the Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Myra Singleton Quarles Thompson, 59; the Rev. Daniel Lee Simmons Sr., 74; and Tywanza Kibwe Diop Sanders, 26.
Six were women. They were pastors, parents, grandparents and educators. Hurd gave 31 years to Charleston's public libraries. Coleman-Singleton coached high school track and worked as a speech therapist. Jackson sang in the church choir. Thompson was teaching the parable of the sower that evening.
Alana Grant, a granddaughter of Simmons, told the AP it took her years to enter the church basement where he attended his last Bible study. She now has three small children. She wants them to hear their great-grandfather's story from her.
Mother Emanuel was established in 1818 and is the oldest AME church in the South. Free and enslaved Black people built it. The congregation gathered for Sunday worship four days after the shooting.
At that first court hearing, Anthony Thompson, Myra Thompson's husband, also forgave Roof. He urged him to repent and give his life to Christ.
Forgiveness did not end the families' grief or the criminal case. A federal jury convicted Roof of hate crimes, and he was sentenced to death in January 2017.
The Emanuel Nine, killed June 17, 2015, at Mother Emanuel AME Church: the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie J. Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Myra Thompson, the Rev. Daniel Lee Simmons Sr. and Tywanza Sanders. (EEW Magazine Online)
South Carolina had no hate crimes charge to bring then and has none now. The Senator Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act has passed the state House twice. Each time it stalled in the Senate, the chamber where Pinckney served.
The Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation has raised about $25 million over a decade for the memorial, the planned Survivors' Garden and related costs, according to the AP. The garden, which will honor the five who lived, comes next. It is not yet fully funded.
Saturday's opening begins with a 9 a.m. ribbon-cutting, followed by music and poetry. Admission is free.
Grant has worked to build support for the hate crimes law. Her husband, state Rep. Hamilton Grant, is among the lawmakers who pushed the Pinckney bill.
"We want more than your thoughts and prayers. We want your advocacy," she told the AP.
