Charleston church shooting survivors confront SC senators to urge passage of hate crimes bill

Back to back, two survivors of the racist 2015 Charleston church shooting confronted South Carolina senators with the devastation that a mass shooting can have on families and individuals.

“I am a product of hate violence,” Felicia Sanders told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee Tuesday. “My family and I, we don’t have one white friend. We have plenty of white friends. I don’t know why I was chosen to be a product of hate because I’ve never seen that. I’ve never had to live that, and I hate that I’m going through it now.”

Sanders was with her son, Tywanza, at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church for Bible study on June 17, 2015, when a white supremacist opened fire. Sanders survived, but her 26-year-old son and her 87-year-old aunt Susie Jackson did not. They were among the nine people killed in what has been undisputed as a racially motivated attack on the church that night.

“When 77 bullets flew through Emanuel AME fellowship hall, I held my granddaughter under my body so tight that I actually thought I suffocated her,” Sanders said “I should not have to choose where I go and how I walk and how I talk because of the color of my skin. That shouldn’t be a problem in 2023, 2022, 2021. It shouldn’t be a problem at all. I don’t want any of you to sit in front of me and think that you are exempt from (a) hate crime that’s happening, that’s happening much too often.”

Emanuel AME shooting survivor Polly Sheppard, left, and state Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, right, speak after a South Carolina Senate subcommittee hearing on a hate crimes bill, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
Emanuel AME shooting survivor Polly Sheppard, left, and state Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, right, speak after a South Carolina Senate subcommittee hearing on a hate crimes bill, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

It was the first time that Sanders, her husband, Tyrone, and fellow survivor Polly Sheppard testified in person nearly a decade after the church shooting that claimed the lives of nine Black churchgoers, including pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.

All three on Tuesday urged South Carolina senators to pass hate crimes legislation, which has languished in the upper chamber over some Republican senators’ concerns mainly that it would infringe on free expression and speech.

South Carolina is one of only two states without a hate crime law. The other is Wyoming.

The main proposal, House-approved bill 3014, would tack on additional penalties if someone is convicted on a state charge of a violent crime such as murder, assault and burglary that was motivated by hate of the victim’s race, religion, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability.

It does not include vandalism, a departure from versions in the past.

A Senate panel quickly advanced the legislation 4-1 Tuesday after hearing from a supportive group that included Charleston shooting survivors, a member of the Jewish community, Myrtle Beach’s police chief and a representative from Duke Energy. Senators said they also received letters from the business community, including the Upstate and metro business chambers.

“While this bill doesn’t necessarily cover nonviolent crimes, not having a hate crime bill in South Carolina and Wyoming sends a message” to white supremacist groups that South Carolina won’t tolerate hate, said Brandon Fish, director of Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Charleston, citing a national audit showing an uptick in antisemitic incidents across the country and in South Carolina.

The bill heads back to the Senate chamber, where it died in the last legislative session, after a bipartisan 15-8 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republican Sens. Richard Cash, of Anderson, and Billy Garrett, of McCormick, questioned why the bill wouldn’t include occupation or age as a class, respectively.

State Sen. Billy Garrett, R-McCormick, votes against sending a hate crimes bill to the full Senate Judiciary Committee during a subcommittee hearing, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
State Sen. Billy Garrett, R-McCormick, votes against sending a hate crimes bill to the full Senate Judiciary Committee during a subcommittee hearing, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Early Tuesday, Charleston survivors Sanders and Sheppard pleaded senators to act on the hate crimes bill.

“South Carolina is a great state, so we should act like a great state,” Sheppard said.

As each spoke, senators on the small panel intently watched, speaking briefly after each shared their story. Garrett, who also sits on the subcommittee, did not respond to their testimony, nor did he look up as each spoke.

“My brother was a victim of gun violence. I lost my brother,” noted state Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Kershaw, “but y’all lost so much more.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.