Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2015

Publication Title

Avidly

Publisher

Los Angeles Review of Books

Abstract

The men and women massacred while studying the Bible the other night in the Emanuel A. M. E. Church were, in their own way, raising hell.

That phrase might seem ill conceived or even disrespectful but it can be invoked here to honor their courage and the A. M. E Church’s long tradition of challenging white supremacy. Their private prayer this week was political simply because their mere existence challenged racial power. There is a long contextual history of race violence in America which gives us tools to see this event clearly but even more than that, there is a history that is deeply specific to both place and to that phrase.

Comments

The document available for download is an accepted manuscript.The published version of this article can be found here: http://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2015/06/19/playing-hell-in-charleston/#comments

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