Black Charleston Residents Were Targeted Well Before the Tragic Shootings

The area in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, where 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof allegedly killed nine people has been a target of racial upheaval for a long while. The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where the killings occurred is one of the oldest black churches in America, formed in 1816 by African Americans who left the segregated white Methodist church over a dispute about burial grounds.

The alleged shooter reportedly said, “I have to do it, … you’re taking over our country. And you have to go,” moments before the shooting, which claimed the life of Emanuel AME pastor Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was also a state senator. The tragic irony is that African Americans in that area could make the case that a takeover is happening to them in Charleston. And it’s unfortunately not the first time that they’ve heard this message.