Thursday, June 16, 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
Dr. Martin Luther King said it on numerous occasions during the civil-rights struggles of the 1960s and, in light of two high-profile mass shootings, the Rev. Dr. Brandon Davis wants to make sure people remember and internalize it.
“Hate won’t win! Do you hear me? Hate won’t win! Love will win,” the Rev. Dr. Davis said in a homily he delivered during a vigil this evening to honor the nine churchgoers who were shot to death one year ago today at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
A few dozen people attended the 45-minute program at St. Andrewes AME Church, 521 W. Earle Ave., on the South Side. The prayer vigil also was to honor the 49 people killed and 53 injured in Sunday morning’s attack at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., said Dr. Davis, pastor.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Dylann Roof, 22, in the racially motivated attack June 17, 2015, in Charleston.
“It’s one year later from when an American terrorist walked in Mother Emanuel and took the lives of nine people,” Dr. Davis said. “It was a dastardly act against people who welcomed him to the house of God.
“Today, we’re still grieving because hate continues to snuff out the lives of people who do not deserve it.”
Read more about the commemoration in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.