This blog will now close – thanks for reading. Ed Pilkington’s report from Charleston is here.
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We will soon bring this live blog to a close. Ed Pilkington’s report from Charleston will be live soon. He begins:
Wrapping his words in the cloak of a church sermon, deploying the inflections and oratorical rhythms of a pastor, President Barack Obama delivered one of his most searing speeches on modern race relations in America …
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Summary: "This whole week I've reflected on grace"
America loves it when its president sings. Today, America sang with him as he launched into a rendition of Amazing Grace.
“This whole week I’ve reflected on grace,” President Obama said at the beginning of his speech at the funeral of Reverend Clementa Pinckney in Charleston, South Carolina. “The Amazing Grace.”
Grace was the subject at the core of the eulogy, which earned from some observers Obama’s newest title: minister-in-chief.
Here is a quick summary of what the president said:
- He praised Clementa Pinckney for being a good man, who came from a family of preachers and a family of protesters who fought for the right to vote and helped desegregate the South.
- He said that black churches were the beating heart of African American communities: “A place to call our own in often hostile world.”
- He said that God foiled the alleged shooter’s plan and “visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we have been blind”.
- Obama praised South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s remarks calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol, saying:“For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of system oppression and racial segregation.”
- He said: “For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts on this nation.”
- Obama said that “we talk a lot about race … we don’t need more talk”. Instead, he called for lasting change – to end gun violence and end discrimination, both conscious and unconscious.
- He ended his speech by singing a refrain from Amazing Grace and naming all nine of the victims of the 17 June shooting, saying they “found the grace”.
Here is a video of Obama breaking into song, while delivering his eulogy of Clementa Pinckney
Obama leads the arena in Amazing Grace. pic.twitter.com/OhyzdopB2J
— Sam Tyson (@SamInteractive) June 26, 2015
President Obama concludes his eulogy
After finishing his brief rendition of the Amazing Grace, Obama lists the victims of the 17 June shooting, saying:
Clementa Pinckney found that grace
Cynthia Hurd found that grace.
Susie Jackson found that grace
Ethel Lance found that grace
DePayne Middleton-Doctor found that grace
Tywanza Sanders found that grace
Daniel Simmons found that grace
Sharonda Singleton found that grace
Myra Thompson found that grace.
“May God continue to shed his grace on the United States of America,” the president says.
And with that he is done.
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Pinckney “understood that justice stems from recognition ... that my liberty depends on you being free too. That history can’t be a sword to justify injustice,” says Obama.
Instead, he says, history must be used as a manual to break the cycle.
Obama has now begun to sing Amazing Grace.
He is joined by the congregation.
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Obama says we all must think about conscious and unconscious racial discrimination in our every day lives. Not just about racial slurs, but also about how we want to call Johnny back for a job interview, but not Jamal.
We have to begin by treating every child equally no matter their race or the station they were born into, he says.
Obama also says we need to open our eyes to the mayhem of gun violence.
“Sporadically our eyes are open,” he says, as when people are shot at an elementary school, at a movie theatre, or in the basement of a church.
We should also not forget about the 30 lives lost to gun violence every day, he adds. Or the survivors, who are crippled by guns, or children now fearful and communities overflowing with grief.
Every time another act of gun violence occurs, someone says we need to talk about race, says Obama.
We talk a lot about race. There’s no shortcut. We don’t need more talk.
Obama says that South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s remarks calling for removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol were worthy of praise.
Obama says that the “flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride” – a remark which is greeted by great applause.
“For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of system oppression and racial segregation,” Obama says.
Removing the flag is not an act of political correctness, Obama says, but a sign that the cause for which the Confederates fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.
“God has visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we have been blind,” Obama says, after quoting a portion of Amazing Grace. “He has given us a chance to find … our best selves.”
Obama says we must prove ourselves worthy of this Grace bestowed upon us by God.
Note that Obama does not name the suspect.
To great applause, Obama says that “the alleged killer” was blinded by hatred; that the alleged killer could not see the grace around Pinckney and the bible study group as they opened the doors of the church to him.
He could not see, the president says, that the families of victims would respond with words of forgiveness or that the nation would respond not with revulsion but with a retrospection and self-examination that we so rarely see.
Obama says that it is not known if the suspect in the shooting knew the history of the church he targeted, but says he probably sensed its meaning.
“[It was] an act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination, violence and suspicion, an act that he presumed would deepend divisions that track back to our nation’s original sin,” says Obama.
“God works in mysterious ways. God has different ideas. He didn’t know he was being used by God.”
The Black church is our beating heart, says Obama.
“There is no better example of this than Mother Emanuel.”
Pinckney was a good man, Obama says, adding: “You don’t have to be of high station to be a good man.” According to Obama, that js all one can hope for when eulogizing anyone – that after all the résumés are read, that the person be a good person.
Obama names all nine people shot dead last week: Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Reverend Daniel Simmons Sr, Reverend Sharonda Singleton, Myra Thompson.
“To the families of fallen, the nation shares in your grief. The church is and always has been the center of African American life. A place to call our own in often hostile world. A sanctuary from many hardships.”
The president is speaking now.
“The bible tells us to hope and persevere,” he began.
Obama went on to say that while he did not know Pinckney well, he did meet him when they were both young – when Obama had fewer visible grey hairs.
Obama said Pinckney came from a family of preachers and a family of protesters who fought for the right to vote and helped desegregate the South.
As he speaks, you can hear murmurs of agreement from the crowd.
President Obama begins his eulogy of Clementa Pinckney
About two and half hours into this touching funeral service, President Obama has taken the stage at the TD Arena in Charleston, South Carolina to deliver his eulogy of Clementa Pinckney, who along with eight others was shot dead on 17 June.
The expectations for Obama’s eulogy are high. Minutes before he was due to deliver his speech, one of the speakers asked that the president’s ears be “pinned to the wisdom posts”, his words “become the sledgehammers of truth”, his words “become dynamite” and his tongue “be like fire”.
Jennifer Pinckney, wife of Reverend Pinckney, who many have mentioned in their remarks through today’s service, has penned a tribute to her late husband:
I do not know how to think about moving forward, but I know I must!
I have tried to be strong for the girls, but this is hard for all of us!
You promised me you would never leave me!
You promised me we would be together for years to come!
You promised me we would watch our children grow, get married, and have children of their own.
You promised me that we would grow old together and spend our latter years without the demands of the Church or State.
I feel robbed, cheated and cut short.
I feel badly that our girls will never have their father to watch them grow.
But I am thankful for one consolation that your life was not in vain.
Crying to myself, reading this painful, painful tribute from Jennifer Pinckney, wife of Rev. Pinckney. pic.twitter.com/NuScdOpRiq
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 26, 2015
I am told that President Obama just requested to speak to the daughters of Rev. Pinckney before he speaks.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 26, 2015
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As we await President Obama’s eulogy, here is a reminder of what he had to say a week ago:
Any death of this sort is a tragedy. Any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy. There is something particularly heartbreaking about the death happening in a place in which we seek solace and we seek peace, in a place of worship.
Mother Emanuel is, in fact, more than a church. This is a place of worship that was founded by African Americans seeking liberty. This is a church that was burned to the ground because its worshipers worked to end slavery. When there were laws banning all-black church gatherings, they conducted services in secret. When there was a nonviolent movement to bring our country closer in line with our highest ideals, some of our brightest leaders spoke and led marches from this church’s steps. This is a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America.
President Obama has arrived in Charleston.
According to the White House pool report, the local fire marshall has estimated the crowd gathered in the TD Arena at 5,500 people.
Side note: this was John Boehner’s first flight on Air Force One during the Obama presidency.
While we wait for President Obama to deliver his eulogy, here is an excerpt from the New York Times profile of the late reverend:
Clementa Carlos Pinckney, who was martyred last week in the basement of Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, and who will be eulogized on Friday morning by the president of the United States, never lacked for either precocity or audacity.
He was ordained at 18, and assigned almost immediately to fill in for an ailing pastor in Green Pond, SC. He presided over student government in high school and in college and, seeing politics as complementary to his ministry, earned master’s degrees in both divinity and public administration. At 23, he became the youngest elected black member of South Carolina’s legislature.
After a pair of two-year terms in the House, he won a State Senate seat and expanded his constituency to five Lowcountry counties. He easily won re-election three times, twice without opposition. While commuting hundreds of miles a week to Columbia, he pastored four churches in succession and served as a district administrator before being appointed at 36 to lead Emanuel, the most prestigious AME pulpit in the state.
Mr Pinckney died young as well. He was 43 days shy of his 42nd birthday when he welcomed a young white stranger into Bible study on 17 June. An hour later, the gunman had massacred the pastor and eight other worshipers in a bloody declaration of racial warfare. In a shocking instant, Mr Pinckney joined the pantheon of American leaders who have been cut down before fulfilling their potential.
You can read the entire profile here.
Here, meanwhile, is a photographic look at how South Carolina has mourned Pinckney – “the modern pastor” – over the last couple of days.
The TD Arena at the College of Charleston where the funeral of Reverend Clementa Pinckney is being held has been the scene of an extraordinary outpouring of grief this morning. Thousands of people have endured intense heat to wait for hours in line in hope of attending the service. Thousands have been turned away.
Gospel singers in line for Rev Pinckney funeral #Charlestonshooting longest line I've ever seen https://t.co/fJgyGY0Y8w
— Ed Pilkington (@Edpilkington) June 26, 2015
Inside the arena, packed with more than 5,000 attendees, the tone of the service has been one of celebration of the life of Pinckney rather than dwelling on the horror of last week. The full choir of Mother Emanuel, Pinckney’s church where he was gunned down last week, has been pounding out gospel songs; many of the women in the arena are dressed in brilliant white.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the proceedings are the messages left to Pinckney by his two young daughters in the published order of service. Malana, who hid with her mother Jennifer in a side room while her father and eight other members of the church were being killed, wrote:
Dear Daddy
I know you were shot at the Church
And you went to Heaven
I love you so much!
I know you love me
Her sister Eliana wrote a poem, part of which reads:
My dear father passed away
And although he may be gone
He’s there with me all day and night long
I will always remember and love you
God Almighty. Poems written by Malana and Eliana Pinckney for their father. In the funeral program this morning. pic.twitter.com/CgGsE0il8U
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 26, 2015
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This service really is a celebration of Pinckney and his life of service.
Pinckney has been lauded by speakers for taking up issues like expansion of Medicaid, access to the voting booth, end of the predatory lending practices and push for body cameras for America’s police forces.
He used his for the voiceless, said state senator Gerald Malloy.
Malloy said Pinckney’s last act as a Christian and senator was to open his door to someone he did not know, someone who did not look like him. As America pays its respect to Pickney it must not close the doors he gave his life to open, said Malloy.
“His sacrifice must lead to reconciliation,” he said.
Other speakers called on those gathered to remember Pinckney when they “are tempted to do what is politically expedient instead of what’s right” and also called for prayers for President Obama, who they said is not just a global statesman but also a churchman.
Last night, while performing in South Carolina, Sir Paul McCartney dedicated a song to the victims of the mass shooting, according to the Huffington Post.
“We pray that people of all colors will be able to live together in peace and harmony,” said McCartney, before launching into a rendition of the 1970 Beatles classic The Long And Winding Road.
Paul McCartney dedicates "Long and Winding Road" to Charleston during his concert in Columbia pic.twitter.com/dPgtvJLlyG
— Andy Shain (@AndyShain) June 26, 2015
Among those in attendance:
Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, Charleston mayor Joe Riley, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
John Boehner, speaker of the House, is on his way. He is traveling with President Obama.
Shortly, we are expected to hear from President Obama when he delivers his eulogy. Here is Ed Pilkington on what to expect:
In his remarks so far on the Charleston massacre, Obama has tended to emphasize his frustration with America’s lax gun laws which, as he put it the day after the shootings, has forced him “to make statements like this too many times”. He also made reference in that speech to the Emanuel AME church, the scene of the carnage, as a place of worship founded by African Americans seeking an end to slavery.
But his remarks in public over the past nine days have been restrained, muted almost, in regard to the overt racial nature of the attack. The past nine days have been in keeping with the cautious stance that America’s first black president has consistently adopted when talking directly about the country’s legacy of racial strife.
Whatever the extent of his comments on race on Friday, it is certain that his eulogy will address the many achievements of its subject. The president will have rich material to work with – the aftermath of last week’s massacre has been marked by an outpouring of affection and praise for the 41-year-old Pinckney in both his public roles, as pastor and as state senator.
Funeral service is under way
It’s been little over a week since Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel AME church, joined a bible study group and killed nine people. More than 5,000 people have gathered to pay their respects to Reverend Clementa Pinckney, the pastor who among those gunned down by Roof. Pinckney was 41 years old and a father of two.
Barack Obama is expected to deliver the eulogy for Reverend Pinckney. He will be joined by first lady Michelle Obama as well as vice-president Joe Biden and his wife, Jill. Hillary Clinton is also in attendance.
As Pinckney’s funeral got under way, those gathered at the TD Arena at the College of Charleston were invited to join in the service and were reminded that despite the television cameras and the long lines “what we enter now is worship”.
They were told that the venue was no longer a TD Arena but a sanctuary.
Join us now as we cover this service live. My colleague Ed Pilkington is reporting live from Charleston.
