Nine African Americans killed by white supremacist

The murder of nine African American parishioners at their church in Charleston, South Carolina, last night by a lone gunman, echoed the heinous act of White Supremacist terrorism in 1963 at the African American 16th St Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, when four young girls were killed in a bomb attack.

This time the gunman, known to be a white man in his 20s walked into the church on a killing spree before fleeing the scene. At the time of writing, he's still at large.

The city’s mayor, Joseph P Riley Jr, described the killing as an “unspeakable tragedy”, pledging to “bring this awful person to justice as soon as humanely possible.

People in prayer on a Wednesday evening, a ritual coming together, praying and worshipping God. To have an awful person come in and shoot them is inexplicable, obviously the most intolerable and unbelievable act possible,”

he said.

North and South Carolina made worldwide news in April when Walter Scott, a black South Carolina man who was shot in the back and killed by a North Charleston police officer, who was filmed attempting to fake the shooting.

Not since the Rodney King beatings and the acquittal of those officers involved back in 1991, has the USA been on the highest alert with racial tensions. Last night’s murderous slaughter will no doubt heighten those tensions further.

Simon Woolley