The Lord took home a giant in Sen. Clementa Pinckney
June 27, 2015
Letter from Attorney and Global Expedition Leader Tom Mullikin – June 18, 2015
Good evening all from Alaska where tomorrow (June 19) I will commence my climb atop Mount McKinley (Denali) with both a South Carolina flag in hand and a very heavy heart. As you know, my friend, Pastor and Senator Clementa Pickney was tragically murdered in his church last night in Charleston.
Clementa Pinckney was a wonderful father, pastor, public servant and a personal friend who will be forever missed.
In October 2013 – while serving as the Associate Director of the Doctorate of Law and Policy Program at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. – we organized a Civil Rights Ride beginning in Charlotte, N.C. and ending in Charleston, S.C. Our faculty, staff, and doctoral students toured prominent and significant Civil Rights-era sites, such as Liberty Hill AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church in Clarendon County where local leaders initiated a challenge to the segregated school system (Briggs v. Elliott) that was combined with other similar cases and heard by the U.S. Supreme Court as Brown v. Board of Education.
The Civil Rights Ride culminated in Charleston where Senator (the Rev.) Pinckney graciously welcomed our group to tour the historic Emanuel AME Church where we learned more about the church’s role in South Carolina history.
Major historical incidents described by Pinckney included the origins of the AME church, the aftermath of the failed slave-uprising planned by freed slave Denmark Vesey, as well as the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders in the 20th century who organized and spoke at Emanuel AME.
Video from this Civil Rights Ride has been requested from media sources from all over the world, understandably so as it captured the powerful voice and thoughtful words of Clementa Pinckney.
As the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, … and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Over the course of Clementa Pinckney’s life, he sent forth many “ripples of hope” and his legacy will live on in South Carolina. He was an honorable man and will be missed by thousands of people who were his friends, members of his congregation and across all of South Carolina. The Lord took home a giant last night.
Wishing each of you the very best, I remain,
Tom Mullikin
[youtube url=”https://youtu.be/XP35_JVnP6g”]
Audio Link NPR – http://www.npr.org/2015/06/18/415537203/when-charleston-s-c-pastor-spoke-people-listened
BBC – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33185559
Video Link MLF You Tube Channel – https://youtu.be/XP35_JVnP6g
