Reforming States Group Remembers Rev. Clementa Pinckney

The Fund joins many others in expressing regret and outrage at the murder of Rev. Clementa Pinckney and eight of his fellow parishioners as they prayed inside Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, last night.

Rev. Pinckney, a South Carolina State Senator, participated in a meeting of the Fund’s Reforming States Group. Says Christopher Koller, president of the Fund, “I met Rev. Pinckney at our meeting in Charleston in October 2013. Over dinner, in his gentle bass voice, he spoke with pride about the history of his congregation as a pioneering black church in Charleston, reconvened in 1865 at the end of the Civil War after having had to worship underground for the previous 30 years. Rev. Pinckney saw his legislative service as an extension of his ministry, helping to address the injustices he encountered—through political change.”

We honor Rev. Pinckney’s leadership—and the role that the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church has played—in building safer, healthier populations, and communities. He helped inspire the work of many.