The Reverend Honorable Clementa C. Pinckney was born July 30, 1973 the son of Mr. John Pinckney and the late Theopia Stevenson Pinckney of Ridgeland, South Carolina. He was educated in the public schools of Jasper County. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Allen University with a degree in Business Administration. While there, Reverend Pinckney served as freshman class president, student body president, and senior class president. Ebony Magazine recognized Rev. Pinckney as one the “Top College Students in America”. During his junior year, he received a Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson Summer Research Fellowship in the fields of public policy and international affairs. He received a graduate fellowship to the University of South Carolina where he earned a Master’s degree in public administration. He completed a Master’s of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
Rev. Pinckney answered the call to preach at the age of thirteen and received his first appointment to pastor at the age of eighteen. He has served the following charges: Young’s Chapel-Irmo, The Port Royal Circuit, Mount Horr-Yonges Island, Presiding Elder of the Wateree District and Campbell Chapel, Bluffton. He serves as the pastor of historic Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, South Carolina.
Rev. Pinckney was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1996 at the age of twenty-three. In 2000, he was elected to the State Senate at the age of twenty-seven. He is one of the youngest persons and the youngest African-American in South Carolina to be elected to the State Legislature. He represents Jasper, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, and Hampton Counties. His committee assignments include Senate Finance, Banking and Insurance, Transportation, Medical Affairs and Corrections and Penology. Washington Post columnist, David Broder, called Rev. Pinckney a “political spirit lifter for suprisingly not becoming cynical about politics.”
Rev. Pinckney has served in other capacities in the state to include a college trustee and corporate board member. In May 2010, he delivered the Commencement Address for the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
He and his wife Jennifer have two children – Eliana and Malana.
The Family of State Senator Pinckney
I pray that the LORD will continue to watch over the pinckney and stevenson family.
Welcome, Stacy Pray-Jenkins. So pray the same prayer.
Those Are My People
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In an emotional telephone interview with Yahoo News on Sirius/XM radio, Clyburn said he was on his way from Charleston airport on Thursday to a prayer service for those slain at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church when Obama called.
“The president called, and we talked, and I noticed that he was very emotional in talking about Clementa” Pinckney, the pastor and Democratic state senator killed in the attack, Clyburn said.
“I mentioned a couple of names (of victims) to him. He said, ‘Those are my people! Those are my people!’ He repeated that two or three times. I could tell that this event has struck a very emotional chord with him. So I was not the least bit surprised when he informed us that he would be coming to the service,” Clyburn said. Obama will deliver the eulogy for Pinckney on Friday.
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/obama-to-clyburn-charleston-victims-are-my-122373502106.html
https://twitter.com/BBCNewsUS/status/614139866507550720
Funeral Services for the Emanuel 9
https://www.facebook.com/pages/6th-District-AME-Church/516745065010017?pnref=story
William Chumley Was Wrong – Reverend Daniel Simmons And Charleston 9 Fought Back!
http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com/content/view/764/37/
The furor of the Confederate flag has gotten the dander up of South Carolina legislator, William Chumley. Chumley recently appeared to blame the nine victims for the massacre, saying something to the effect that instead of fighting back, they simply “Waited their turn to be shot.” However, the opposite is actually true – the Charleston 9 fought for their lives. According to survivor Polly Sheppard, Dylan Storm Roof appeared to have been intent on killing Senator Clementa Pinckney. However, when the Reverend Daniel Simmons (age 74) grappled with Roof, he unloaded on Simmons and the others:
Singleton said he and his family were told the story by Polly Sheppard, 69, one of two adult survivors of the massacre that left nine people dead … Singleton, 40, a magazine publisher in Charlotte, N.C., said it appeared that Roof’s original intent was to kill the church’s well-known minister, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney. But when the Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74 and retired, grappled with him, he unloaded on Simmons and the others, Singleton said. Felicia Sanders, 57, and her granddaughter survived by pretending to be dead.
The account reaffirms what I had believed all along – Roof’s agenda was the assassination of a U.S. senator . Pinckney had been a vocal supporter of justice for the family of Walter Scott and called for mandatory body cameras for South Carolina policemen statewide. Officer Michael Slager who killed Scott, was later indicted for murder by a grand jury. When Roof told the parishioners, “I have to shoot you … you all are taking over,” that is probably what he meant.
“According to survivor Polly Sheppard, Dylan Storm Roof appeared to have been intent on killing Senator Clementa Pinckney.”
This is what I believed from the very beginning. I read Dylann Roof’s manifesto and I believe it is mostly true with respect to everything he says about his hatred for black people. However, when it gets to his motive, “you’re raping our women and taking over,” that is only partially true and perhaps intentionally misleading. And this idea that Dylann felt he had to do something on behalf of white people is another partial truth. There have been enough massacres lately for him to know the probable outcome, that if he lived it would be life in prison or a death sentence.
Dylann Roof became interested in Trayvon Martin and you can bet that it didn’t stop there. Certainly given the amount of free time he had and his obsession with white supremacy, you can bet he has been following all of the murders of black people being murdered by police. The most recent one closest to his home was the murder of Walter Scott and that is most likely where he became aware of Rev Pinckney. And I do believe he “researched” the church, and then put together his evil “plan.” Rev Pinckney was targeted, I fully believe that. Dylann would probably consider the others he murdered collateral damage.
This massacre has much in common with the Tucson massacre in January, 2011. Jared Loughner hated the government, and certainly had to be influenced by the ugly, political environment back then, mostly due to “The Tucson Tea Party.” Gabrielle Giffords was clearly the target, she got the first bullet. But Loughner went for the massacre, aiming and shooting at people he didn’t know, just whoever was there. I believe Dylann Roof’s massacre follows this same pattern, shoot the target, then shoot everyone else.
Clarification. What I intended to say about Dylann Roof’s manifesto is that I do not believe he was completely honest, and it seems more likely he was intentionally misleading with respect to his motive. When he writes about slavery being good, and segregation being good, and his hatred for black people, etc..that could be cut and paste from his favorite white supremacist website(s). Very generic, nothing original, just re-hashed nonsense from that subculture.
His motive, as he describes it, is more interesting because it is so generalized and vague. White people have fled to the suburbs, white people won’t fight, someone has to do something, blah blah blah. This is why I believe he is deliberately misleading.
I believe that Roof intended primarily to assassinate Rev Pinckney, and he ramped it up to a massacre for reasons that we can probably guess with some accuracy. A massacre gets far more media attention than a single murder. We know he wanted the infamy, perhaps because his white nationalists associates would hail him as a hero.
Let’s indeed ADD Senator John McCain & Sarah Palin for this outbreak of HATE.
Absolutely. There was plenty of hate being spread around in that 2010 election that preceded the massacre.
Henry Louis Gates: If Clementa Pinckney Had Lived
By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr.
June 18, 2015
I have no doubt that had the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney lived, he would have become known — and celebrated — across our country for his leadership, rather than sealed immortally in tragedy, one more black martyr in a line stretching back to the more than 800 slave voyages that ended at Charleston Harbor.
I know this because I filmed a long interview with Mr. Pinckney — who was killed in his church in Charleston, S.C., along with eight congregants on Wednesday evening — for a PBS documentary series three years ago. It was clear that there was a reason this young man had been called to preach at 13, to minister at 18, to serve in the State Legislature at 23, and to shepherd one of America’s most historic black churches at 26, reminding us of other prodigies — and martyrs — for whom the Good Book has served as a bedrock of public service. He was 41 when he died.
…
What makes rereading the transcript of our interview so poignant for me today is the reminder that, for one still so young, Mr. Pinckney was deeply aware of the history he carried within himself, a history of the courageous and the slain, of the triumphant and the terrorized. He was fluent in the lives and careers of brave black people who had served state and church since the Civil War. He was acutely conscious of the missed opportunities of Reconstruction, of the contradictions that could have been settled, of the innocent lives that could have been spared, a century before the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, had Americans following the Civil War only been willing to put racial healing and equal economic opportunity first.
The “unfinished work” of America — to quote Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address — didn’t prevent him from loving the South and his country, and feeling a claim to its blessings. “I think it really says that America is changing,” he said of President Obama’s election, “and I think it signals to the world that the American dream is still alive and well.”
…
To know him, even over the course of an autumn Carolina afternoon, was to know a man who cherished the values on which our republic was founded, and who held an abiding faith that the great promise of America could, one day, be fulfilled. He was a unifier who, this past spring, taught us how to mourn in communion with one another, following the police slaying of Walter L. Scott, a black man, just north of his city. I don’t believe that he had the capacity to imagine the depth of malice and anger that came down on his congregation, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, on Wednesday night.
…
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/opinion/henry-louis-gates-if-clementa-pinckney-had-lived.html?referrer=&_r=0
So heartbreaking that Rev. Pinckney was ripped away by the bullets of an evil, racist murdering terrorist. My heart cries.
(I worry that whoever mentored and trained Roof might have other recruits. I want all LE agencies to work to find out just who Roof’s trainer was.)
https://twitter.com/wtylersandberg/status/613531416194777088/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MsNewzie/status/613762627840405508/photo/1
I’m looking at these pictures and thinking this could be the 60s, this could be the civil rights era.
I am so distraught and yet outraged by the assassination of such a fine person who literally gave his entire adult life to public service. If this man can be gunned down by a home grown terrorist, then anyone can, absolutely anyone, and the entire nation SHOULD be outraged.
I read the manifesto hastily written by the terrorist and, despite the fact that he does not mention this, I still believe that Rev.Pinckney was targeted for his activism, and this was in addition to the fact that he was a pastor at the historic church that meant so much to black community. The terrorist was not just a white supremacist, he was a 21 year old loser who passed the time “researching” his favorite subject, “white nationalism.” I would just be blown away if he didn’t know this was Rev Pinckney in this church.
And then I wonder how much will ever be known to us, if we will ever have the full story behind this terrorist.
I am feeling so much of what you are feeling, Liza.
I feel as if I am witnessing a future President lying in state. The Hon. Rev. Pinckney certainly had the potential to be President.
Something should change because of this massacre. Something should fundamentally change. This should be a tipping point.
So heartbreaking and cruel, Liza!
Save them Governor Haley, just SAVE THEM.
If she were “all there” with those tears, she would have taken down that flag of hate and racism so that The Hon. Rev. Clementa C. Pinckley’s casket would not have been overshadowed by it as it approached the capitol building.
[caption id="attachment_63751" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Sen. Clementa Pinckney’s body arrives by horse drawn carriage at the South Carolina Statehouse, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. Pinckney’s open coffin was being put on display under the dome where he served the state for nearly 20 years. Pinckney was one of those killed in a mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_63749" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard stand over Sen. Clementa Pinckneys body as members of the public file past in the Statehouse, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver the eulogy at Pinckney’s funeral Friday morning at the College of Charleston. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)[/caption]
One week ago Rev Pinckney walked the earth. Now this.
I know, Lisa. I know.
[caption id="attachment_63748" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
A South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard stands over Sen. Clementa Pinckneys body during a public viewing in the Statehouse, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver the eulogy at Pinckney’s funeral Friday morning at the College of Charleston. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)[/caption]
He’s in heaven. Rest in peace good man.
Yes, Eli, he is in God’s loving arms.
http://media.bradenton.com/smedia/2015/06/24/17/35/BYWs6.AuSt.69.jpeg
[caption id="attachment_63747" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Sen. Clementa Pinckney’s wife Jennifer Pinckney, center, and her daughters, Eliana, left, and Malana, right, follow his casket into the South Carolina Statehouse, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. Pinckney’s open coffin was being put on display under the dome where he served the state for nearly 20 years. Pinckney was one of those killed in a mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)[/caption]
My heart WEEPS for Mrs. Pinckney, Eliana & Malana.
May God comfort, bless and watch over Jennifer and her daughters Eliana and Malana.
The loss for this family is immeasurable. For them, it just goes on forever. Dear God, there is so much pain and suffering in the world that we have no control over. But this we do, and we’ve got to find the way.
https://twitter.com/spinnellii/status/613756473512984577/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MikeMcCWYFF/status/613736751899746304/photo/1
https://twitter.com/JenniferWOLOTV/status/613750573603491840/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MayciWCBD/status/613760214618255361/photo/1
Hundreds Gather At Wake For Charleston Church Shooting Victim Sen. Clementa Pinckney
The public, open-casket viewing took place at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia. Sen. Pinckney is reportedly the first African American whose wake took place under the capitol dome since the Reconstruction era.
posted on Jun. 24, 2015, at 1:21 p.m.
Ema O’Connor
Hundreds of people lined up in front of the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia Wednesday morning to pay their respects at the viewing of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.
Senator Pinckney was one of the nine people killed in the Charleston church shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last week.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/hundreds-say-goodbye-to-senator-pinckney#.vlOBDoglw
Senator & Rev. Pinckney & the other 8 black people were not shooting victims.
THEY WERE MURDERED BY A RACIST WHITE MAN WHO SHOT THEM.
If there’s any consolation to be had in all of this madness, the deaths of these nine martyrs will not be in vain.