CHARLESTON, US // President Barack Obama delivered a passionate speech on America’s racial history on Friday in his eulogy for a state senator and pastor who was killed in a racial attack on a historic African-American church.
“What a life Clementa Pinckney lived,” Mr Obama said to rounds of applause and “Amens.”
“What an example he set. What a model for his faith. And then to lose him at 41. Slain in his sanctuary with eight wonderful members of his flock.”
“Their church was a sacred place,” the president added. “Not just for blacks, or Christians, but for every American who cares about the expansion of liberty ... That’s what the church meant.”
Thousands of mourners eagerly awaited Mr Obama’s speech, which came in a week of sorrowful goodbyes and stunning political developments. The shooting inside the Emanuel African Methodist Church has prompted a sudden re-evaluation of the Civil War symbols that were invoked to assert white supremacy during the South’s segregation era.
Pinckney came from a long line of preachers and protesters who worked to expand voting rights across the South, Mr Obama said. “In the pulpit by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. He set an example worthy of his position, wise beyond his years.”
“We do not know whether the killer of Reverend Pinckney knew all of this history. But he surely sensed the meaning of his violent act. It was an act that drew on a long history of bombs, and arsons, and shots fired at these churches; not random, but as a means of control, a way to terrorise and oppress,” the president said.
“It was an act that he imagined would incite fear, and incrimination, violence and suspicion. An act he presumed would deepen divisions that trace back to our nation’s original sin.”
“Oh, but God works in mysterious ways!” Mr Obama said, as the crowd rose to give him a standing ovation. “God has different ideas!”
The president then spoke plainly about the ugliness of America’s racial history – from slavery to the many ways that minorities have been deprived of equal rights in recent times. Removing the confederate battle flag from places of honoor is a righteous step toward justice, he said.
“By taking down that flag, we express God’s grace. But I don’t think God wants us to stop there,” Mr Obama said, smiling as the crowd laughed with him.
The president wrapped up in song, belting out the first chorus of “Amazing Grace” as the choir and organist joined in.
* Associated Press
