July 7, 2015
On June 17, 2015, a white gunman identified as Dylann Roof went into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal [A.M.E.] Church, allegedly to attend a Bible study and prayer meeting.
As soon as the prayer meeting was over he began to open fire in a massacre that killed 9 church members, including the senior pastor Clementa C. Pickney who was also a State Senator. Several others were injured in the shooting spree.
One victim tried to talk Roof out of committing this heinous act, who is alleged to have said, "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. You have to go."
Ironically the vast majority of the shooting victims were middle-aged and elderly women.
Several images of Roof have been posted online with him posing in front of a confederate flag.
Since this incident, Confederate flags have been removed from state capitols in the south faster than the spread of the flames of Sherman's army.
The history of the Confederate flag, once the battle flag of the Confederacy during the war between the states, has consistently been present in terrorist attacks on blacks after the Civil War. Its raising over Southern state capitosl has generally been viewed as a Southern act of defiance, seemingly stating, "We lost the war but we still reserve the right to treat blacks as bad as we want."
Roof is alleged to have claimed on his personal website that he intended to carry out a racist attack on blacks because of his race hatred. He is also alleged to have stated he attacked that church in particular because of the work it had done to register voters during the Civil Rights Movement. According to witnesses he specifically asked to speak with Pastor Pickney, which would suggest his killing spree was premeditated.
A.M.E. Churches in general are the oldest known black Christian churches in the country, established when blacks were finally allowed to openly worship during the time of slavery. Prior to this, blacks were not allowed to worship in any religious or spiritual ceremonies nor gather publicly together, and of course weren't allowed to worship alongside whites.