On June 17, 2015, five clergy and four church members were mercilessly gunned down during Bible study by a 21-year-old white supremacist at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
In the wake of the devastation, the faith of the Emanuel Nine, their families, and the survivors illuminated the way: it would be by the amazing grace of God. Just hours after the massacre, the survivors displayed God’s unyielding love by telling the shooter that they forgave him.
After the tragedy, the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation, a 501(c)(3), was formed with the sole purpose to build a national memorial to honor the five survivors and remember the nine souls lost on June 17, 2015. The Emanuel Nine Memorial will be located on the grounds of Mother Emanuel AME Church.
This memorial will be a place of contemplation, communion and conversation, a catalyst for creating a culture where racism and violence exist no more.
You are invited to help us build and endow the Emanuel Nine Memorial.
Groundbreaking is expected to begin early 2023
Rendering of the Memorial Courtyard which is part of the Emanuel Nine Memorial
The inspiration for the Emanuel Nine Memorial design is drawn from reflecting upon the lives and sacrifices of the Emanuel Nine: Reverend Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Mrs. Cynthia Graham Hurd, Mrs. Susie J. Jackson, Mrs. Ethel Lee Lance, Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Kibwe Diop Sanders, Reverend Daniel Lee Simmons, Sr., and Mrs. Myra Singleton Quarles Thompson.
