Sunday Reads: How long to sing this song?

How long to sing this song?

How long to sing this song?

How long,

how long,

how long,

How long to sing this song?

U2 – ’40’ Lyrics | MetroLyrics

In aftermath of Charleston tragedy, Ogden churches stand as one | KSL.com

Zora Neale Hurston, 1940.

At age 87, Susie Jackson had lived through the era of Jim Crow laws, the civil rights struggle and “through all of the mess racism has caused in this country,” an Ogden minister observed during a prayer service Friday to honor the nine victims of a mass slaying in Charleston, South Carolina.

“She was felled by hatred, racism and terrorism” in her own church, said the Rev. Gage Church of Ogden’s Congregational United Church of Christ.

The Rev. Church was among clergy from several Ogden area churches who joined in a prayer service at Embry Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the aftermath of the mass shooting.

Prayers were offered in honor of the six women and three men who were gunned down while attending a weekly Bible study and prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night.

Clergy also prayed for the victims’ families and for peace and justice in a broken world.

“We are angry and anguished, and then we are comforted because we know that in that room, she was not alone,” the Rev. Church prayed.

“The other victims were not alone. You were there. You were holding them in your loving arms.”

Ella Fitzgerald, 1940

Prayers were offered on behalf of each of the victims, who include Jackson, the Rev. and South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, 41; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Myra Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; and the Revs. DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; and Daniel Simmons Sr., 74.

Let that sink in for a moment. This woman. What she has seen…and lived through. What hatred she experienced in her life, and the culmination of that hate on Wednesday.

I don’t have the resourcefulness of religion or even the amount of faith required to put this act of hateful violence into perspective. That anyone is capable of “being comforted” at all…about anything, it is beyond my reasoning. I am just constantly turning the thoughts in my mind, that this woman’s entire life…was one entire struggle against something many of us do not an will not experience first hand.

Martha Flowers, 1953.

Living as a black woman in the South. And the one place where she should feel safe and at peace, with connections that go back to more than the “anglo-traditional” religious community, the Black Church especially symbolic in many, many ways…here Susie Jackson was murdered.

One of nine…

One of hundreds…

I only have links for you today. We leave this afternoon for Memphis, taking a detour to Shiloh Battlefield.  Will post a quick thread on Wednesday…with a longer one on Sunday….Happy Father’s Day to the Daddies out there!

The 9 Victims of the Charleston, South Carolina, Church Massacre – The Root

Worshipers pack ‘Mother Emanuel’ in Charleston, 4 days after shooting – LA Times

Charleston Church Holds First Service Since Shootings

Joyce Bryant, 1953.

A.M.E. Church in Charleston Reopens as Congregation Mourns – The New York Times

Before I get to more links on Charleston, an update on a shooting here in Georgia from back in March of this year…cop kills unarmed black man:

A quick reminder of what went down:

Family wants action after 25-year-old in Maserati shot, killed… | www.wsbtv.com

Police said officers feared for their life when the suspect jumped in a car, tried to get away, and drove at them in the white Maserati.

They have not yet identified the man who died.

The parents of Nicholas Thomas, 23, said their son was the man killed.

Thomas’ parents were both at the scene Tuesday afternoon and told Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant that police had shot and killed their son.

“He was a lovable guy,” mother Felicia Thomas said. “He was just a lovable guy. He would do anything for everybody. He was just loved cars. He loved his family. He just had a baby.  His baby is not even 5 months old.”

Nicolas Thomas’ father, Huey Thomas, told Diamant at the scene, “I guess now, I just want to understand what happened, because I hear so often and here it is now.  I’m a professional, my wife is a professional and we have a kid that’s dead.”

Langston Hughes, 1942.

It happened across the driveway from a busy Starbucks where witnesses inside took cover as it all unfolded.

“They were standing behind the car, opening fire. He wasn’t driving towards them,” Goodyear customer Brittany Eustache said.

Eustache told Channel 2’s Rachel Stockman what happened. She said she watched from inside the store, just feet away.

“The car was not moving when they began to shoot at him. The car had been stopped. He hit a curb. He couldn’t go any further,” she said.

“So at no point was he making any aggressive moves?” Stockman asked her.

“None, none at all. They immediately opened fire on them,” Eustache said.

No police officers were injured. A spokesperson for the Smyrna Police Department said the shooting has already taken an emotional toll on the officers involved.

Thomas’ parents said he was working at the store to pay off fines associated with what they called a traffic warrant.

Police have yet to confirm that. Investigators said they are still trying to figure out how many of the six officers who were at the scene actually opened fire.

 

Harry Belafonte, 1954.

Details emerge in deadly Cobb County police shooting – CBS46 News

Man killed by officer was shot in the back, Atlanta medical examiner says | US news | The Guardian

Autopsy: Man shot by Smyrna police was shot in back | AccessWDUN.com

A man who was killed by a police officer’s bullet was shot in the back, a medical examiner’s report says, adding a new twist to a case in which police say the man was driving a car toward officers when the incident happened.

An autopsy on the body of 23-year-old Nicholas Thomas was conducted by the Cobb County medical examiner’s office March 25, the day after Thomas was killed while at the wheel of a customer’s Maserati outside the Goodyear tire store where he worked, according to the report that was certified by the medical examiner on Tuesday.

Police have said Smyrna police Sgt. Kenneth Owens shot Thomas because the officer feared for his life. Police have said Thomas was driving toward officers as they tried to serve him with a warrant for a parole violation, though his family says other witnesses dispute that.

The medical examiner’s report says Thomas died from a gunshot wound after a bullet entered his upper back on the right side. The bullet hit his lungs and aorta before coming to rest in his upper chest on the left side.

The autopsy did not determine how far the officer was from Thomas when the shot was fired, but the report says no gunpowder or soot was found on Thomas’ back or shirt.

Leontyne Price, 1953.

“Nicholas Thomas died as a result of a gunshot wound of the torso sustained during an altercation with police,” the report says. “The manner of death is classified as homicide. The designation of the manner of death as homicide does not necessarily indicate improper actions on the part of police.”

Mawuli Davis, a lawyer for Thomas’ family said the fact that Thomas was shot in the back “reinforces the position we have taken that he was not a threat to the officers.” It also seems to contradict the police assertion that Thomas was driving toward officers, Davis said.

The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive | US news | The Guardian

Unarmed man flags down LAPD seeking help. They shoot him in the head. – Boing Boing

James Baldwin, 1955.

Back to Charleston:

White supremacist murders nine people at Emanuel AME Church in an act of terrorism | Feministe

Dylann Roof may have been radicalized by the website of a group associated with southern GOP politicians

Rick Perry Taken to Task by Tweets for Accidental Comments

Texas volunteer firefighter fired after posting Dylann Roof ‘needs to be praised for the good deed he has done’

A Letter From a White South African to White America | Bronwyn Lea

Judge who urged support for Dylan Roof’s family off case – NY Daily News

Ethel Waters, 1940.

FBI Director Says Charleston Shooting Not Terrorism | Mediaite

In America, there is no sanctuary – Baltimore Sun

How ‘benevolent sexism’ drove Dylann Roof’s racist massacre – The Washington Post

Dylann Roof’s friend took gun during ‘crazy’ bigoted rant – NY Daily News

This link is from a white distant relative of Pinckney: ‘Only white people can save themselves from racism and white supremacism’ – Americas – World – The Independent

Oh please: Charleston shooting: Dylann Roof’s stepmother defends ‘smart’ boy ‘drawn in by internet evil’ – Americas – World – The Independent

Muriel Rahn, 1944.

Dylann Roof: far right denies links and disowns ‘act of purposeful evil’ | US news | The Guardian

Addicting Info – Dylann Roof’s Racist Manifesto Sure Has A Lot Of Mainstream Right-Wing Talking Points

Prison escape: New York prison break: police chase possible sightings as corrections officer stood down | US news | The Guardian

In NOLA:

Suspect in NOPD officer killing arrested in Ninth Ward | New Orleans – WDSU Home

Pictures for today’s post:

Harlem in Color – The New Yorker

W. E. B. Du Bois, 1946.

Lewanne Kennard, 1940.

James Earl Jones, 1961.

Alvin Ailey, 1955.

Mahalia Jackson, 1962.

This is an open thread. My internet is going out. Hope to get the images up soon….