White and black: Talking race after a massacre

CHARLESTON, S.C. - On Day 3 of the vigil in front of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where racial rage crossed paths with godly faith Wednesday night, residents from the city and its suburbs stood in the blazing heat politely answering questions from reporters from across the globe.

Between interviews Friday, the people - black and white - knelt in prayer, wiped tears, left flowers and teddy bears and handwritten signs. Most also pushed back against the conventional wisdom that the slaughter of nine black parishioners at the hands of a deranged young white man would push this Deep South coastal city into racial strife, a la Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore.

"I know you're from a foreign country, but we want to tell the world we are a loving state," state Rep. Carl Anderson told a woman from a German television station. "We want you to come here and be a part of us."

Anderson, 53, chairman of the state's legislative black caucus and the pastor of a Georgetown AME church 60 miles from Charleston, said while the slayings are hate crimes, they were committed by one man.

"This was one incident, one evil man. We're a praying people, we are a forgiving people and we do not look for this to happen again," he said.

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said that if the alleged killer, Dylann Roof, wanted to start a race war, as he told police, then he failed.

"That's a fantasy if he would even think that. But if he wanted to, and if he hoped to, it was a tragic and dismal murderous failure because he broke the hearts of black people and white people to the same degree," Riley said. "This is a together community, and we have been. But all that did was make this community love each other that much more. "

Riley, who has been mayor for 40 years, also said that it was time to put the Confederate flag in a museum, when asked about the controversial symbol by CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Friday night, a community prayer and healing vigil at the College of Charleston TD Arena drew the state's two U.S. senators, relatives of the nine victims, a contingent of local clergy and politicians and nearly 4,000 citizens who stood and gave thunderous applause when speakers intoned the need for racial unity, linked arms and sang the civil-rights anthem "We Shall Over Come."

The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers, III, of the Charity Missionary Baptist Church, told the audience that the song was first sung by union members in Charleston in 1948. He called for a new state gun-control law and for it to be named for slain Pastor Clementa Pinckney, his close friend, but predicted passage of such a bill would be a struggle.

"You shouldn't be able to carry a weapon on your side where they serve liquor, too much temptation to shoot somebody. You shouldn't be allowed to carry a gun in church. There was one too many guns in that church," he said during an interview.

A fund has been established to help the church and the families with funeral expenses, while another fund will be set up to carry on the work of Pastor Pinckney, said the speakers, who included Mayor Riley.

Riley said the city plans to purchase land on the wharf where slaves were bought and sold to build an African American museum, which will also tell the story of Emanuel AME Church and those who died there this week.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott declined to discuss gun control and the racial motivations of the killer, he said, out of deference to the victims and their families.

"The day is coming very quickly when there will be a larger, broader conversation about political issues and the undercurrents, perhaps, that are stirring right now," the Charleston native said after the service.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said the church slayings were not emblematic of racial problems in the state. But a handful of women - three black and two white, senior fellows from the Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City who had traveled from a racial-justice conference in Washington, D.C., to be in Charleston - said racism was at the heart of the slayings and any attempt to downplay that would be wrong.

"I think what we are experiencing here is a tipping point, a boiling over of racial tensions in America that did not escape this prayerful town, that did not escape this amazing, historic praying community," said the Rev. Dr. Jacqueline J. Lewis, who is black. "So, racism is a dangerous weapon that is killing us. And what's going to heal it is critical conversation along with prayer and, frankly, activism that dismantles the structures that have created white supremacy."

The Rev. Sharon Gross, who is white, said the killings speak to the deep systemic racism that runs through the fabric of the nation.

"White people have to start standing up. We've been quiet too long and have not dealt with the depths of white supremacy that go way back in every aspect of our lives," she said.

Standing across the street, Patrick and Alice Callahan, saw things differently. They moved from Ridley Township, Delaware County, to the Charleston suburb of Mount Pleasant three years ago.

"This is so out of place for this area, so out of place. I had to see it for myself," said Alice, 57, who said the couple came to pay their respects to the dead.

"With something like this, you would expect, maybe, some protests like in other cities. You won't see that here. They want calmness, they want healing to start," said Patrick, 57, whose job with Boeing as a facilities manger led the white couple to relocate.

"Like in Philadelphia if this happened, you know as well as I do, this would probably be a little bit different situation. You'd probably have a lot of people protesting, walking up and down the streets shouting. But here, that just doesn't exist," Patrick said. South Carolina U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, who left the governor's office in 2011 after a sex scandal, showed up at the church mid-morning. He, too, downplayed the theory that that state has a problem with racism. "I would say that's the easy way out," he said. "Is there racism in this country and around the world? Certainly. But is it widely held by people in South Carolina? I would say no. I would say this young person was an outlier, that this was an incredibly tragic event. It is calculated malice at an incalculable level."

Kristen Lewis, 35, with her son Jackson, 21 months old, snug in his stroller, stood on the sidewalk in front of the church with tears streaking her face. The Charleston schoolteacher didn't know the victims, but came so that the massacre would be ingrained in her mind forever.

"It's sad to see this city undergo such tragedy because we are such a diverse culture here," said Lewis, a Buffalo, N.Y., native who is white. "But this happened, and things need to change. Obviously, this young man grew up with hate in his heart. But how do we fix that?" Lewis, who has lived in the city for eight years, said among the things that must change is the respect that many locals have for the old Confederacy.

She said Confederate flags are seen flying from car antennas, from front doors and printed on T-shirts.

"I understand people want to hold on to that old history, but it's time to let it go," she said.

"But," she said, looking back at the church, "we all have to remember this."

On Twitter: @MensahDean