Malcolm Graham says that his sister’s body was still in the morgue when he noticed that people were rallying around the importance of forgiving her killer.
A librarian who loved her community, Cynthia Graham Hurd was one of the nine Black worshippers who were fatally shot on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. She and other church members were in the middle of a Bible study session when the gunman walked into Mother Emanuel, sat with them for 45 minutes, and then opened fire.
Malcolm Graham, who moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, for college, was getting ready for bed when he saw a news report about a shooting at the church that’s been a haven for his family for more than half a century. After he learned that his sister had attended Bible study at Mother Emanuel that night and couldn’t be found, he began preparing for the worst.
Within days, some of the victims’ family members said that they had forgiven the gunman, stressing that “hate won’t win,” and political leaders praised this spirit of forgiveness. Graham underscored that he respects that everyone walks in their faith differently. He also appreciates that, sometimes, forgiving is more about helping a victim’s loved ones to move on than about absolving a perpetrator of their sins…