Police tape surrounded “Mother” Emanuel AME Church Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the fatal shooting spree during a Wednesday night church meeting that left nine dead. You can read two commentaries in this issue, plus a pair of news briefs, in today’s issue of Statehouse Report. (Photo by Andy Brack)
NEWSStaff reports
State budget crawls forward
As legislators grappled Thursday with the loss of one of their own to gun violence in a Charleston church, the Senate moved forward with action that has sent three budget bills to conference for compromises with the House.
The main session ended earlier this month without passage of a budget, in part because senators couldn’t agree on whether to offer sweeping changes to fund major road improvements. The state Department of Transportation says more than $40 billion of spending over the next 25 years is needed to bring state roads and bridges up to snuff. Various proposals were approved or debated this year, but the Senate didn’t move forward with a last-ditch House effort to get something big done.
Currently in play:
General appropriations bill: The $7 billion annual appropriations bill is the primary bill that funds state government through tax revenues collected by the state. Sources say the House and Senate versions have minor differences that should be comparatively easy to work out in conference.
Capital Reserve spending bill: Every year, legislators develop a list of projects to spend money on if a capital reserve fund is not needed. The House version prioritized the $127 million in the bill to go to a new MUSC Children’s Hospital and to help pay for a new aeronautics center at Trident Technical College before funding other needs. The Senate version funded various higher education initiatives.
Supplemental appropriations bill: Because revenue collections this year were $400 million more than predicted, lawmakers have extra money to spend next year. Where the House and Senate differ is how to spend the money on road improvements, with the House calling for about $220 million for roads and the Senate about $300 million.
Next steps: First, the conference committee has to resolve issues and come up with a joint recommendation. That could be done as early as next week. Then, the leaders of the House and Senate will call members back to Columbia to vote on the three budget measures. Leaders say they hope to be finished before July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. More.
Only four legislators replied to gun violence question
As the horror of the Charleston church shooting spread across the state, many wondered about ways to have more control over gun violence. Earlier this year, state lawmakers did two things:
- Body cameras. It passed a bill that will help fund body cameras for police across the state. This bill followed the shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed man stopped for a traffic violation, by a North Charleston police officer, who has since been indicted for his murder. Many believe the officer would never have been indicted if a bystander had not caught the shooting on video.
- Domestic violence. After a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by The Post and Courier on the high rate of domestic violence in the state, legislators approved a measure that includes keeping guns out of the hands of abusers.
On Thursday, we wondered whether more could be done. So we sent emails to dozens of state lawmakers. Only four sent replies. Here are their responses in full, edited only for style:
QUESTION: What can South Carolina do to curb gun violence?
Rep. Patricia Henegan, D-Bennettsville: “Some years ago, I witnessed a shooting where one man was killed as I tried to intercede. I asked myself, what could I have done to prevent this needless death? More than that, what could our system have done by having tighter laws in place? Would this young man have been able to purchase this gun if we had tighter laws in place?
“It is a fact, states with more gun laws have fewer gun-related deaths. As legislators, we need to spend more time having SERIOUS conversations concerning gun laws in our state. We need laws to address policies requiring extensive background checks to stop unhealthy individuals from purchasing guns and require all to carry a permit.”
State Rep. Rita Allison, R-Spartanburg: “When people hate and are not at peace in their lives, they lash out and blame others. Hard to cope with that type of violence and stop the outcome. Government can only strengthen laws to punish the lawless. God gives you the peace and civility. People will live in peace or this state and country will fall from within. Our children deserve better … take responsibility for our own actions …pray for this peace!!!”
State Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson: “I would say the problem is not weapons. The problem is hatred and we just lost a true champion of the love of Christ this week.”
State Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens: “Thanks for the question. However, all of us in the Senate are stunned and very grieved today with this terrible tragedy involving our colleague and friend, Senate Pinckney, and the mass murder of eight others in Charleston last evening. I know you’ll understand when I decline to respond to this question at this sad time.
Haley, Scott keep their seats
Some politicians live by a strange two-part rubric: “1. When in doubt, do nothing. 2. Stay in doubt all of the time.”
There was no doubt, however, where Gov. Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., stood on controlling gun violence Thursday when the Rt. Rev. Dr. John Richard Bryant, senior bishop of the AME Church, got big applause during a prayer vigil at Morris Brown AME Church when called on state lawmakers to limit access to guns.
According to The Post and Courier, “Most took to their feet, including U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, Mayor Joe Riley and other politicians. Only Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Nikki Haley remained seated.”
We heard from several people who were shocked that Haley and Scott remained.
NEW COMMENTARYOpen the door of the race closet
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
JUNE 19, 2015 | Most South Carolinians don’t know a lot of out-of-the-closet, vociferous racists. They’re probably around, just like they have been since two people who didn’t look like each other first met. But in our society — here and in other states — they generally live on the fringes.
A hundred years ago, racism was institutionalized in the South with Jim Crow laws and separate but equal schools. That changed after World War II as people marched to embrace civil rights. And while governments deinstitutionalized racism in accommodations, schools and meeting places, people’s attitudes took longer. The overt racism of the past became a more hidden, covert prejudice found today across the nation in persnickety comments, sharp glances, rolled-up windows at stoplights.
But what I know, today, is that most people in the South get along, regardless of skin color. People might have different economic circumstances. They might go to different churches. They might live in different neighborhoods. They might have different cultural traditions. But they generally are accepting and not hung up on race. White, brown, black people attend the same schools, restaurants, football games, libraries, grocery stores, malls, beaches, airports and so on.
I also know that people from outside the South have a hard time believing any of this, particularly with the rebel flag flapping in the wind outside the Statehouse in Columbia. Or when they see news of a white gunman going into a place of worship and shooting nine people at a prayer meeting. Or when a white cop uses a stun gun and then a pistol on an unarmed black man stopped for a traffic violation.
Folks, there is evil in the world. There’s no two ways about it. It’s in South Carolina. It’s in Oregon. Good people must do what they can to thwart it. Otherwise, we’ll have more shootings like the one in Charleston. Or Newtown. Or Littleton. Or Aurora.
There are things we can do to combat this evil. It would help, for example, if we stopped fueling hate with bitterness, acrimony, divisiveness and partisanship in our political and community talk.
Quite frankly, America — not just South Carolina — needs to blast the closed door of race off its hinges and confront it vigorously. We need active community discussions, involvement and engagement over a long period to heal and deal with the issue. We need, as Columbia strategist Charles Weathers says, to have “courageous conversations.” Let’s target hate and racism just as we target lung cancer or some other dreaded disease — with education and resources.
It also wouldn’t hurt if symbols of hate were not prominently displayed, such as the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds. Yes, the flag represents heritage to some. But a far greater number find it to be a symbol of hate. If you want your flag, fine. Put it on your wall. Find it in a museum. But don’t publicly display it on state-owned land.
We also could do more to control the pervasiveness of handguns. There are more than 50 million in the United States. As a state, do we really need to make it easier for people to carry concealed weapons — without a permit, as a current House bill proposes — or do we need to make it tougher? For the record, I am not suggesting that people give up the right to own handguns. What I’m suggesting is more controls — criminal background checks, mental stability checks, longer waiting periods, controls on gun shows.
I can already hear the gun lobby’s arguments: Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. But those who want guns controlled like in every other advanced country find this ludicrous. Easy access to guns makes it more likely someone who is upset or mentally ill will turn to one and use it. Just look at our state’s high rate of domestic violence. Our legislature made a good start this year to try curb guns in the hands of abusers, but it’s only a beginning.
What happened in Charleston Wednesday night does not reflect the core of South Carolina. But we’ve got to prove it by working diligently to confront hate and eradicate the roots of racism so this kind of senseless tragedy never happens again.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com.
ANOTHER TURNCharleston shooting brings sadness, shock, anger, frustration
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
NOTE: This commentary was published early Thursday after the senseless Wednesday night shootings in Charleston. It was also picked up by Huffington Post.
CHARLESTON, S.C., June 18, 2015 | As I headed to bed Wednesday night, a white gunman shot and killed nine people in an historic black church in the center of town just four blocks from where I used to live. Unaware of the evil, sleep came quickly.
But in the wee hours, the ping of a text from an Australian colleague woke me. I didn’t want to read it and tried to go back to sleep. But after tossing and turning, I read the text, only to learn the heart-wrenching news about what was going on a few miles away. I was dazed. Several instant reactions percolated and struggled to the surface:
Deep, utter sadness for victims, their families and their incomprehensible loss. “Mother” Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, ministered by state Sen. Clementa Pinckney who was killed in the senseless shooting, has always been an open, welcoming place, a harbor of comfort, a leader for bringing together black and white.
Shock that something so horrific could happen in the heart of Charleston, one of the world’s great small cities. Across the street from the church is one of the best public elementary schools around. Adjacent is a world-class performing arts center that is about to re-open after a long renovation. A couple of blocks away is the main library. In the other direction is a central square used weekly in the summers for a farmers market and just vacated by dozens of artists in town for Spoleto Festival USA.
Anger at a society that continues to glorify the gun culture and makes it easy for nuts to walk into a great place of worship and open fire. A bill to allow anyone to carry concealed weapons without a permit narrowly missed passing in the recent legislative session. Instead of making it easier to get and carry guns, state lawmakers across the country need to make it tougher.
Tired, frustrated and forlorn that some Southerners and Americans just can’t get beyond race. Skin has different colors, I tell our children, but people all have red blood, too much of which spilled Wednesday night in Charleston. Right now at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, I don’t know what I’ll tell them when they wake up and learn that they won’t be going to summer day camp because it’s four blocks from the scene of the shooting spree.
There’s never a good time for a tragedy, especially one of this magnitude that cuts to the core of how a community interacts and relates. But now, just 10 weeks after a white police officer in nearby North Charleston shot an unarmed black man to death after a traffic stop, there’s not been enough time for healing from that tragedy before the assault of another.
It’s clear that Charleston’s police and elected leaders were on top of the gruesome, heartbreaking shooting at Mother Emanuel, quickly branding it as a crime born of pure hate. Religious and other community leaders instantly mobilized to provide solace during the tumult.
What’s not clear yet is what Charlestonians will do now that it is on the list of locations of deadly mass shootings along with Blacksburg, Va. (32 dead in 2007), Newtown, Conn. (27 killed, 2012), Killeen, Texas (23 dead, 1991), San Ysidro, Calif. (21 killed, 1984), Littleton, Colo. (13 dead, 1999), Aurora, Colo. (12 killed, 2012).
This list is too long. Instead of waiting for the next shooting at a church, school or theater, something needs to be done to rein in the gun culture in America. Politicians need to stop kowtowing and being fearful of the likes of the National Rifle Association and its lobby. Instead, they need to put in reasonable gun safeguards that allow sportsmen to hunt, but implement ways to stop the senseless killing of good people.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
There’s no telling at this hour how many bullets were fired Wednesday night in Charleston, but it’s clear there were at least nine in a fairly short time period. That’s nine too many.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Send feedback to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
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Column on reaction to church shooting helped
To the editor:
I sit here in shock and tears, a mere 30 minutes after waking up to the horrible news about the attack on Clementa Pinckney and his church– and on civilization. I opened your column and found the very thoughts I needed to hear, and to endorse.
From one writer to another, I know what it takes to see one’s community touched by horror, and then to sit down at a keyboard and try to pull some sense from it in the still of pre-dawn hours. As someone else once said, “you just open a vein.” Thank you.
— Rebecca Masters, Charlotte, N.C.
Quick response was great service to community
To the editor:
Your article moved me immensely.
You have done a great service by immediately writing this response to such an evil deed. And by expressing views that not all will support, but need to be heard by all.
I have been watching the CNN and Fox coverage here. Am very impressed with the measured and human response by the police chief and Mayor Riley, which I am sure will do much to keep community reaction calm as they search for the culprit.
I hope many read your article, take note, and take action.
— Rob Whiddon, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Send us a letter. We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. We generally publish all comments about South Carolina politics or policy issues, unless they are libelous or unnecessarily inflammatory. One submission is allowed per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information.
- Send your letters to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Scoring Mullen, Riley, Haley, Scott
Thumbs up
Mullen, Riley. Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley showed solid leadership in the hours after the shooting at Emanuel AME Church. Thank you from a grateful city and state.
Presidential candidates. It’s good that presidential candidates like Jeb Bush and Donald Trump have canceled their campaign trips to the state following the shooting. As Trump said, “This is a time for healing, not politics.”
In the middle
State Senate. We understand how senators can say that they haven’t yet reached consensus on big road funding, which led them to put off moving forward this year. But then again, we don’t understand it either. It wasn’t like it was a last-minute thing. Missing in action: Real leadership.
Peeler. We were surprised as many were that Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, called for Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, to step down after questioning whether being Senate leader and chair of the Finance Committee was too much responsibility. But what happened this year in the Senate seems to be far more about one personality or another. It’s more of an issue of a Senate fractured into three groups: Democrats, tea party Republicans and country club Republicans. They need to get along better. More.
Thumbs down
Haley, Scott. Think about the response that the crowd at a prayer vigil gave when controlling gun violence was vigorously applauded. Keeping to your seats was a visible expression of what’s wrong with the gun debate. Shame on you both.
Hatred, racism. Who knows why Dylann Roof allegedly shot nine people in a church? But the hate in his heart was learned behavior. We’ve got to stop teaching children to hate.
Injury deaths. South Carolina has the 17th highest rate of injury-related deaths in the country, injuries that include homicides and suicides, traumatic brain injuries, traffic fatalities, falls and drug overdoses. More.
NUMBER9
Number of people killed Wednesday night at a Charleston church prayer meeting. Among those slain was state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, a Jasper County Democrat who served as pastor of the church, Emanuel AME Church. Also shot and killed were Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, DePayne Middleton Doctor, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons and Myra Thompson. More.
Wanted: True leadership
“Instead of sitting on the sidelines and providing false information to the public through social media, Gov. Haley should show true leadership and actively engage with the Senate rather than blaming the House for the Senate’s ineffectiveness.”
— House Speaker Jay Lucas after criticism by Gov. Nikki Haley that blamed lawmakers for failing to pass a budget by July 1. More.
Day of reckoning on guns is ahead
“Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let’s be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency.”
— President Barack Obama on Thursday, reacting to the news of the shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church. Full text of Obama’s remarks.
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIAAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church
S.C. Encyclopedia | To escape racial discrimination in Philadelphia’s Methodist Church, Richard Allen, a former slave, organized the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church there in 1787. It is the oldest African American religious denomination and existed mainly in the North before the Civil War.
The denomination’s origins in South Carolina date to 1818. In 1817 the attempt of white Methodists in Charleston to control the activities of black church members precipitated a mass exodus of 4,367 from the church. The following year many went on to establish the African Church, which was affiliated with the AME denomination. At this time Charleston’s membership was second only to that of Philadelphia, and it was the southernmost branch of the denomination. Suspicious of its northern connections and the autonomy the church represented, white authorities routinely harassed its members. Church leaders’ involvement in the 1822 Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy led to destruction of the church and dispersal of its membership.
In 1863 the church was reestablished in South Carolina when the first AME missionaries, the Reverends James Lynch and James Hall, began their operations in and around Port Royal, Edisto, and Beaufort. On May 15, 1865, in Charleston, Bishop Daniel Payne organized the South Carolina Conference, which originally also included North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. African Methodism grew rapidly and was black Carolinians’ second largest denomination at the end of the century. In 1880 with 300,000 primarily southern members, the first bishops for the South were elected. All had important ties to South Carolina. Henry McNeal Turner was from Newberry; Richard Cain was the quintessential preacher-politician in Reconstruction South Carolina; and the Sixth Episcopal District, which included South Carolina, was William Dickerson’s first appointment.
African Methodism promoted education, and churches frequently housed secular and Sunday schools. To raise the educational level of ministers, Payne Institute was established in Cokesbury in 1870. Relocating to Columbia in 1880, the school was renamed Allen University and was the first college controlled by African Americans in the state.
South Carolinians were also in the forefront of the denomination’s missionary efforts. In 1878 the AME Liberian Mission Church headed by the Reverend Santania Flegler departed Charleston with the Liberian Exodus participants. Bishop Henry McNeal Turner’s efforts organized the denomination in Sierra Leone and Liberia in 1891 and southern Africa in 1896. In 2004 one-third of the denomination’s 3.5 million members were Africans and the church was growing most rapidly in western and southern Africa. South Carolina, which constitutes the Seventh Episcopal District, had the third largest membership of the church’s nineteen districts.
Advocating “the Gospel of Freedom,” African Methodist ministers have played important roles as secular leaders. Between 1868 and 1876 seven AME ministers were elected to the South Carolina state legislature. Church leaders used their offices to articulate community grievances and to protest against lynching and racial discrimination.
In 1948 the Reverend Joseph DeLaine organized black parents against racial discrimination in Clarendon County’s public schools. The resulting litigation was one of the cases decided in the U.S. Supreme Court’s famous Brown v. Board of Education decision. The mission of the church has always been broadly based, and its resources have been deployed to address a range of social problems, including HIV-AIDS, health-care disparities, affordable housing, and foster care.
– Excerpted from the entry by Bernard E. Powers Jr. To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)
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