I’ve always been impressed by what I call the “aftermath mentality.” As Americans, we are so good at treating each other as individuals and family after a crisis. Take, for example, the 2015 shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. If you know anything about the historic city of Charleston, it isn’t difficult to imagine why Dylann Roof chose the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church as his target. Known as Mother Emanuel because it birthed other AME churches, the church has endured more than its share of tragedies since its founding in 1816. Back then, all churches in Charleston were required to have a majority white membership, and blacks were allowed to meet for church services only during the day. African Americans were routinely harassed and forbidden to learn to read. Denmark Vesey, one of the church’s founders, was implicated in a slave revolt and was later executed after a secret trial.
Six years after the church’s founding, the original church building was burned to the ground by whites who were angry about black progress. The black congregation continued to meet in secret until the end of the Civil War, and then they rebuilt Mother Emanuel. In 1969, Coretta Scott King led a march from Mother Emanuel during the infamous hospital workers’ strike. Throughout the church’s history, great speakers like Booker T. Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Reverend Wyatt Tee Walker of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference often chose to speak at Mother…
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