To a lot of prominent people, the attack that killed 9 members of Charleston's Emanuel AME
church on Wednesday night – "Mr. Roof is charged with 9 counts of murder" – was
shocking and inexplicable.
Lindsay Graham: "I can't explain this. I don't know what would make a young man, at 21 get
so sick and twisted that he would kill 9 people in a church."
Fox anchor: "The gunman's horrifying attack on faith, killing 9 including a famed pastor."
The got part of it right.
Obama: "Mother Emanuel is, in fact, more than a church. This is a place of worship that
was founded by African-Americans seeking liberty."
One of the founders of the church was Denmark Vesey, who was later executed after planning
to lead a slave revolt in the 1820s. The church itself was actually burned down after that,
as white retaliation increased. And it was banned in South Carolina after that time.
Clementa Pinckney: "The State of South Carolina, because of the work of black congregations
in Charleston, fomenting this desire that all people should be free in the state, instituted
a law that closed Emanuel. I mean, by state law the church was closed. And it was about
40 years until the church was reistablished."
That wasn't the last time the black church would be targeted by white supremacists, either.
In 1963, you have the bombing of the 16th street Baptist church , which famously killed
four young girls. In the 1990s there was a spate of mysterious fires, many of which were
found to be white supremacists targeting black churches. The reason the black church is a
target is because of what it symbolizes.
Clementa Pinckney: "Many of us don't see ourselves as just a place where we come and worship.
But as a beacon, and as a bearer of the culture, and a bearer of what makes us a people. "
To white supremacists, any pride in in black identity has been a reason to retaliate with
violence. And throughout American history, that's just what they've done.
In South Carolina alone, from 1866-1868, the Federal Government compiled reports of nearly
130 attacks on freed men and elected officials. And many of those attacks, especially those
intimidating voters and would be voters, were orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan. That led
to, essentially, the nation's first anti-terrorism law. The enforcement act of 1871, which is
often called the Ku Klux Klan Act, made it a felony to use "force, intimidation, or threat"
to keep anyone from voting or participating in trials, or from carrying out their duties
of a government official.
So, was the Charleston shooting an act of terrorism?
One way to look at terrorism is the way that political scientist do. It's in the service
of a very particular political ideology. And for the Klan, that's preventing black Americans
from excersizing their rights as citizens. Today, it's looking to racist, apartheid countries
like Rhodesia, or apartheid South Africa, as models for what we should be doing here
in the states. That might be the reason that we saw those patches on the jacket of the
alleged Charleston shooter. But there's also another way to look at it. Do people feel
terrorized? When Fox News asks if churchgoers are safe, it's just about one shooting. When
the congregants of the Emanuel AME church ask it, there's a century and a half behind
the question of:
"Lord, tell us where we are safe at? We need some answers from you, God? Speak now to us,
God. Tell us where to go. Tell us what to do. You tell me what to say."