A permanent space of remembrance, reflection, and racial reckoning nears completion in the heart of the Holy City
Deona Smith opened her remarks at the preview for the Emanuel Nine Memorial by saying the names of the nine people killed 11 years ago at Mother Emanuel AME Church.
Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney. Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd. Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton. Rev. Daniel L. Simmons. Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor. Tywanza Sanders. Myra Thompson. Ethel Lance. Susie Jackson.
“We wouldn’t be here if it were not for the Nine,” said Smith, executive director of the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation. “It was a horrific thing that happened here on June 17th, 2015.”
One week before the 11th anniversary of one of the most devastating hate crimes in modern American history, Smith gave media a first look at the memorial under construction adjacent to the historic church at 110 Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston, South Carolina — a city still processing a wound that never fully healed.
What Happened on June 17, 2015
On a Wednesday evening, a group of faithful members of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church — one of the oldest and most historically significant Black churches in the United States — gathered for Bible study. They welcomed a young white stranger who joined them. At the close of the session, he opened fire.
Nine people were killed in the attack, which federal prosecutors identified as a racially motivated hate crime carried out by a self-proclaimed white supremacist who wanted to start a “race war.” The victims ranged from a state senator and pastor to a librarian, a coach, and devoted church members.
Five people survived the attack — Felicia Sanders and her young granddaughter, Jennifer Pinckney and her daughter, and Polly Sheppard. The survivors’ testimonies, and their extraordinary and widely-reported act of public forgiveness, moved the nation and the world.
The FBI later faced scrutiny and civil litigation for a background check failure that allowed the shooter to legally purchase a firearm despite being prohibited from doing so under federal law. The Department of Justice settled civil cases with 14 plaintiffs, with settlements ranging from $5 million for survivors to between $6 million and $7.5 million for victims’ families.
A Memorial Years in the Making
The Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation was formed in 2017 as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, separate from the church and governed by an independent board of 15 members. Its co-chairs are Rev. Eric Manning, the senior pastor of Mother Emanuel, and John Darby, CEO of The Beach Company.
That same year, the foundation selected architect Michael Arad to design the memorial — not through a design competition, but through a process rooted in character and vision. Arad was asked to write essays about forgiveness and his approach to memorial design before he was chosen. He is best known for designing the National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center in New York City, which opened on the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011.
“I will do my utmost to honor the memory of the nine victims and give voice to the survivors, the grieving families and the community,” Arad said upon accepting the commission.
The resulting design features two sweeping curved marble benches — described in the design as rising “like sheltering wings” — that arc toward each other across a central names fountain engraved with the names of the Emanuel Nine. The oval names fountain, visible in the aerial rendering, sits at the heart of the courtyard like an altar, a polished marble focal point beneath the open sky.
Inside the Memorial and The Survivors’ Story — Still Being Written
The Emanuel Nine Memorial is designed as a layered experience — each element intentional and deeply considered.
The Memorial Courtyard anchors the site. Two large fellowship benches curve toward each other, creating an open embrace for visitors. “An opening between the two benches widens towards the entrance, welcoming strangers to enter and join in community,” according to Handel Architects, Arad’s firm.
At the center rests the Names Fountain — an oval marble basin bearing the names of all nine victims, lit from below to glow at dusk. Visitors can be seen standing beside it in the renderings, bowing their heads in quiet reflection — a scene that mirrors the posture of grief and grace that has defined this community since 2015.
A Contemplation Basin offers space for private, individual reflection. Fellowship Benches invite communal gathering. And the reimagined church grounds physically connect the memorial to Mother Emanuel AME Church itself, stitching the sacred history of the congregation into the landscape.
Admission will be free and the space is designed to be accessible to all — locals and visitors alike.
“It is a safe space that should be available and accessible to everyone,” Smith said. “Everyone in our community and visitors alike.”
While the Emanuel Nine Memorial rightly bears the names of the nine killed, Smith was direct in pointing out who often gets overlooked.
“We talk a lot about the Emanuel Nine. Very few people talk about the survivors and they’re the ones who experienced it and who are still here,” she said. “So, it’s very important that we not forget them.”
The Survivors’ Garden — planned for the east side of the church — will honor Felicia Sanders, Jennifer Pinckney, Polly Sheppard, and the two young girls who were present that night. It is the one component of the memorial that remains fully dependent on continued fundraising. Smith said the foundation needs to raise at least another $2 million to complete it.
The survivors’ legal journey has also continued in the years since. In April 2026, a federal judge ruled that two of the survivors could pursue $150 million in damages from Russian companies determined to have knowingly spread online content that radicalized the shooter — a landmark legal development that underscores the global dimensions of domestic hate violence.
The campaign goal is $25 million. As of the media preview, approximately $19.9 million has been raised and pledged.
Donors have ranged from individual community members — whom Smith called “the true drivers of the project” — to major corporate partners including Boeing, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, TD Bank, Coca-Cola Consolidated, The Beach Company, and Nucor, as well as municipalities and philanthropic organizations.
“In the same way that Charleston came together after the tragedy, Charleston has come together to fund this memorial,” Smith said.
The foundation maintains full financial oversight and independent governance. Audited financial statements are available upon request.
Beyond a Monument: Education and Action
The foundation’s vision extends beyond stone and marble. Through its Crossroads Education & Outreach program, the foundation plans to develop an annual cohort series, lectures, film screenings, community dinners, and structured dialogue programming focused on the root causes of racism and hatred — and what communities can do to prevent them.
“We cannot have a tragedy like this in our community and not have programs to try to prevent it from ever happening again,” Smith said. “We want to have programs where people can come in and take classes and lectures and talk about what happened, how do we prevent it from happening again, and really how do we change some of the things that we sometimes unknowingly feel and think — the things that prevent us from truly being a united community.”
The Crossroads initiative addresses acknowledgment, reconciliation, forgiveness, and empowerment as pillars of community healing.
A Lowcountry Native Leads the Charge
For Deona Smith, this work is personal. A Lowcountry native who grew up in the AME tradition and has ties to the Mother Emanuel congregation, she described leading the foundation as a calling she does not take lightly.
“This is my charge: to lead this organization and to try to present a memorial that the families, the survivors, and the community at large can be proud of,” Smith said. “Something that earns the respect and honor of who they were as people in our community.”
The media preview also included a visit to a museum space across the street from the church, where works of art, handwritten tributes, flowers, and gifts sent to Mother Emanuel in the immediate days and weeks following the 2015 tragedy have been carefully preserved. Church historian Lee Bennett, Jr. is curating that collection — a physical archive of a world that stopped and wept together.
What Comes Next
Construction is well underway at 110 Calhoun Street, and the memorial is expected to open to the public this fall — 2026. Charleston draws millions of visitors annually, and the memorial is being built with that reach in mind. But Smith makes clear it is about far more than tourism.
“We want to provide a space for people to come and gather, to talk to each other, to have conversations with each other that they may never have had otherwise,” she said. “It’s a space you can come and discuss what’s wrong. It’s a space you can come and celebrate what’s right. And it’s a space you can come when you’re personally troubled, just to sit at the altar inside the Memorial Courtyard and just have a brief moment of prayer and reflection.”
Eleven years after the worst moment in the life of a historic congregation, the city of Charleston is building something lasting — not a monument to grief, but a living space for the hard, ongoing work of remembrance, healing, and justice.
To support the Emanuel Nine Memorial and the Survivors’ Garden, or to learn more, visit emanuelnine.org*.
About TANTV News: TANTV News is an independent local news organization serving the DMV region and covering stories of civic, national, and cultural significance.
