Thousands attend Obama's eulogy for church shooting victims

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Thousands of mourners joined in song, sorrow and applause today before President Barack Obama's eulogy for nine black churchgoers who police said were slain in a racially motivated attack.

The "Mother Emanuel" choir, hundreds strong, led roughly 6,000 people through rousing gospel standards between speakers who celebrated the legacy of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and his fellow churchgoers.

"Someone should have told the young man. He wanted to start a race war. But he came to the wrong place," The Right Rev. John Richard Bryant said to rounds of applause. A banner alongside Pinckney's closed coffin declared "WRONG CHURCH! WRONG PEOPLE! WRONG DAY!"

Applause also rang out as state Sen. Gerald Malloy, Pinckey's Senate suitemate and his personal lawyer, noted how the slayings have suddenly prompted a re-evaluation of Civil War symbols that were invoked to assert white supremacy during the South's segregation era.

"All the change you wanted to see and all the change you wanted to do – because of you, we will see the Confederate flag come down in South Carolina," Malloy said.