South Carolina Church Killings and Roots of White Supremacy

JIM LOEWEN, jloewen at uvm.edu
Loewen taught race relations for twenty years at the University of Vermont. His books include Lies My Teacher Told Me; The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong.

Rev. GRAYLAN S. HAGLER, gshagler at verizon.net
Hagler is senior pastor with the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C. He said today: "There are attacks against black people all around the world: from attack on a church in Charleston; police violence in Baltimore; deportation of 'Haitian' looking people in the Dominican Republic; violence against Africans in Israel and oppression of Palestinians there. We must stand and act against racism wherever it manifests itself -- worldwide and without geographical or ethnic limits."

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KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY, kevinagray57 at gmail.com, @kevinagray
Gray is an activist in South Carolina and was just interviewed by Chris Hayes on MSNBC -- see video.

Gray's books include co-editing Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence. He posted on his Facebook page: "Some tried to chide me on issuing a call of sorts to white people about the environment that creates a Dylann Roof. Well, the Confederate flag, a flag of white supremacy flies on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds along with a statute of white supremacist 'Pitchfolk' Ben Tillman. Countless streets and buildings are named after Confederate heroes. The president of the College of Charleston routinely dresses up as a Confederate general and fights mock battles. And this is the same man who blocked putting a statute of Denmark Vesey on the Statehouse grounds calling him a murderer of white people. This is where we live and what is ingrained everyday in our psyche without apology. I'm against white supremacy and I apologize to nobody for being against it." See his piece from 2002: "South Carolina and Its Confederate Flag."