CHARLESTON, S.C. — Speaking at the funerals for three of the victims of a deadly attack on a historic African-American church in South Carolina, eulogizers said Saturday that the lives lost had become a catalyst for change.
The services were held for Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders and Susie Jackson at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, 10 days after a gunman entered the church and killed nine people — all African-Americans. Police contend the attack was racially motivated.
The tragedy “shook an America that didn’t want to believe this kind of hate could still exist,” Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley Jr. said during a eulogy for Hurd.
Riley said the killings will go down in history with other episodes of church violence, referencing the Civil Rights-era bombing of a Baptist church in Alabama that killed four girls.
Remembering the 54-year-old Hurd, who worked as a librarian for 30 years, Riley said, “Her death will lead to change, and Cynthia Hurd will be helping millions.”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley attended the services along with U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Speaking at the combined service for Sanders, 26, and Jackson, 87, Haley said the shooting happened on her watch, and she promised “we will make this right.” The governor did not say what actions she planned to take.
Outside the church, Jackson told The Associated Press that it is “really time for a new South.”
“This was the most traumatic hit since Dr. Martin Luther King was killed 50 years ago. This could be a defining moment for the American dream for all its people,” Jackson said. “This is a resurrection. Look around, there are white and black people together.”
The funerals follow one on Friday for the church’s slain pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, whose eulogy was delivered by President Barack Obama.
On Saturday, minutes before the afternoon funeral services were set to begin, the clouds opened up to a heavy thunderstorm which sent those getting ready to enter the church scrambling into the first floor where the shooting occurred.
There they waited patiently while helpers laid white sheets along the wet floor to prevent slipping. Some shared memories of those lost.
Daniel E. Martin Jr. said as a lifelong congregant at Emanuel, he grew up with Hurd and later served on the Board of Trustees with Jackson.
“She was one of the true soldiers of the church,” Martin said of Jackson. “Whenever you came to church, you knew you were going to look up and see her smiling face.”
According to a pamphlet given at the funeral, Sanders died trying to protect Jackson, his aunt, and Felicia Sanders, his mother who survived the shooting. Sanders’ last words were to the shooter, the pamphlet said.
“You don’t have to do this, we are no harm to you,” Sanders is alleged to have said, followed by “where is my Aunt Susie, I’ve got to get to my Aunt Susie.”
Justice Department officials broadly agree the shootings meet the legal requirements for a hate crime, meaning federal charges are likely, a federal law enforcement source told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush’s campaign says the Republican presidential candidate plans to meet with black pastors in Charleston on Monday, part of a rescheduled visit to the state after he cut short an earlier stop because of the shooting.
