VICTIMS DEVOTED TO THEIR CHURCH
The nine victims of the Charleston church shooting ranged in age from 26 to 87, and include a librarian, a legislator and several ministers. Rev. Clementa Carlos Pinck
ney, 41, pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the shooting occurred, began preaching at 13 and was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives at 23, becoming the youngest African-American to be elected to the State Legislature.
Pinckney had two daughters with his wife, Jennifer.
He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in business administration from Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina, where he served as class president, according to a report from Reuters. Earlier this year, he appeared at rallies to protest at the death of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man shot dead by a police officer in Charleston. The pastor lent his voice to a campaign for the police to be forced to wear body cameras.
Cynthia Hurd, 54, served as the regional manager of the St. Andrews branch of the county library, a job she loved because it brought her closer to people. City officials said Thursday the branch would be renamed the Cynthia Hurd Regional Library in her honour.
DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49, was the mother of four daughters — the youngest is in junior high school and the oldest is in college. She was an enrolment counsellor at Southern Wesleyan University’s Charleston campus, according to a friend. Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, was a coach for the girls’ track and field team and a speech therapist at Goose Creek High School. She was on the church staff.
Tywanza Sanders, 26, had recently graduated from Allen University, a historically black college, as a business administration major last year and was looking for employment.
On his Facebook profile, a smiling Sanders appears with a sideways baseball cap. “Your Dreams are calling you” reads the banner underneath, the Wall Street Journal reported. Other postings on his page suggest he had been following the cases of several black men killed by police in recent months.
Ethel Lee Lance, 70, was a sexton at the church and had worked there for more than three decades. Her cousin, Susie Jackson, was a longtime church member and died along with her.
Susie Jackson, 87. Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr., 75, a retired pastor from another church in Charleston, attended Emanuel A.M.E. every Sunday for services and Wednesdays for bible study, according to his daughter-in-law, Arcelia Simmons of Newport News, Va. Simmons’ father was a pastor for 50 years and his mother was a member of the women’s Sunday school, according to an online obituary. He had three brothers.
Myra Thompson, 59, was the wife of the Rev. Anthony Thompson, vicar of Holy Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church in Charleston.