CHARLESTON, S.C. — The first black president of the United States came to Charleston to eulogize the victims of a mass shooting at a historic African-American church — a tragedy that one civil rights activist said was a sign of "how far yet" the nation has to go to put racial tensions behind it.
Thousands of mourners gathered Friday to hear President Barack Obama pay tribute to the pastor and eight parishioners of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The nine were slain at the church during a Bible study session last week in what authorities are investigating as a racially motivated attack. Obama spoke at the Rev. Clementa Pinckney's funeral on Friday afternoon.
<strong>"It would be a betrayal of everything the Rev. Pinckney stood for if we allow ourselves to slip into a comfortable place of silence again," Obama said Friday.</strong>
WATCH as President Obama sings "Amazing Grace":
Obama delivered a passionate discourse on America's racial history in his eulogy for the state senator and pastor.
Pinckney came from a long line of preachers and protesters who worked to expand voting rights across the South, Obama said. "In the pulpit by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. He set an example worthy of his position, wise beyond his years."
Obama spoke plainly about the ugliness of America's racial history — from slavery to the many ways minorities have been deprived of equal rights in more recent times. Removing the Confederate battle flag from places of honor is a righteous step toward justice, he said.
<strong>"By taking down that flag, we express God's grace. But I don't think God wants us to stop there," Obama said, smiling as the crowd laughed with him.</strong>
The president wrapped up the four-hour funeral in song, belting out the first words of "Amazing Grace" all by himself. The choir, organist and many in the audience stood up and joined him.
The first two funerals, for Ethel Lance and Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, were held Thursday, with tight security and emotional responses to the eulogies and hymns.
Attendees included South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Sharpton noted that on the day of the shootings, he was in Washington watching Loretta Lynch being sworn in as the nation's first black female attorney general.
"That morning, I saw how far we have come," Sharpton said. "That night," after the shooting, "I saw how far yet we have to go."
Police officers stood guard and checked bags as mourners filed in for the funerals, which were held as the debate over the Confederate flag and other Old South symbols continued around the region. A growing number of leading politicians said Civil War symbols should be removed from places of honor, despite their integral role as elements of Southern identity.
"A hateful, disillusioned young man came into the church filled with hate ... and the reaction was love," Riley said at the funeral for Coleman-Singleton, 45. "He came in with symbols of division. The Confederate battle flag is coming down off our state Capitol."
Police plan to close several streets Friday around the TD Arena in downtown Charleston for Pinckney's funeral that is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
Funerals will be held Saturday for Tywanza Sanders, Susie Jackson, and Cynthia Hurd. Hurds' will start at 11 a.m., followed by a joint funeral for Sanders and Jackson at 2 p.m. The services will be held at Mother Emanuel AME Church.
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