5 Years After Charleston Church Massacre, City Says Calhoun Statue Will Go

“It’s an affirmation of the fact that there is in our nation, sadly, still evidence of racism and disrespect,” said Joseph P. Riley Jr, who was mayor of Charleston for 40 years, including at the time of the shooting. “The ultimate act five years ago was kind of a most severe example one could imagine of racial hatred.”

Not everyone sees much progress.

Willi Glee, a member of Emanuel since the early 1990s, said that he hasn’t seen any changes in the past five years that have addressed the issues of white supremacy and racism.

Neither an apology for slavery nor relocating a statue reach the root of racism in Charleston. Mr. Glee participated in civil rights marches and protests in the 1960s; now, he says, ”we’re back to where we were.”

John Darby, co-chair of the Emanuel Nine Memorial Foundation, which was formed to build a memorial to the lives lost in the shooting, says it has received donations and pledges of about $7 million toward its $17.5 million goal. Meanwhile, the church itself is struggling to raise funds for badly needed internal repairs. The choir loft is off limits because of longstanding termite damage to its structural supports.

But Mr. Gregorie, the city councilman, said that in the five years since the shooting, he has seen the consciousness of the people of Charleston grow to recognize the systemic racism that black people have faced for hundreds of years in the city and nationwide.

“What has grown out of the tragedy is a closer-knit city, compelled to combat racism and ensure that nothing like this ever happens in our city again,” Mr. Gregorie said

He said he was particularly hopeful about the commission on equity, inclusion and racial conciliation, which was formed to carry out the recommendations listed in the formal apology two years ago. Among them was a promise from city officials to work with residents to fight systemic racism. Ingrained systemic racism is everywhere, Mr. Gregorie said, in the city’s education system, health care system, and in the policing system.