[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10282]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR VICTIMS OF SHOOTING AT EMANUEL AME CHURCH, 
                       CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

  (Mr. SANFORD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SANFORD. Mr. Speaker, in just a moment, I will request a moment 
of silence, but before I do, I stand here with other Members of the 
South Carolina delegation to say our colleague Jim Clyburn, who right 
now is back home visiting with aggrieved families on the coast of South 
Carolina, and many of us, like Senator Scott and others, will be going 
back during this week to visit with those same families.
  I am joined as well by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and 
Members of this body who have been deeply shaken by the events of this 
last week in Charleston, South Carolina.
  I rise with this group on behalf of the nine families who have been 
impacted back home, on behalf of the people of the First District of 
South Carolina, and on behalf of the people of South Carolina who have 
shown a whole lot of heart and a whole lot of love here over the last 
week.
  I say this because, less than a week ago, as we all know, a young man 
with incomprehensible malice came into the Mother Emanuel AME Church on 
Calhoun Street in Charleston, South Carolina, and did the unthinkable 
as he joined a Bible study and he gunned down nine of the members, the 
parishioners, there in the church.
  Fortunately, our story doesn't end there because the family members 
of the victims also did the unthinkable. I say that because there, at 
the bond hearing, they did the unimaginable, the incomprehensible in, I 
guess, showing human grace is a reflection of God's grace and what is 
talked about in Romans in not repaying evil with evil, but repaying 
evil with good because, at the bond hearing, the first family comes up, 
and they say: ``I am in incomprehensible pain, but I forgive you.''
  The next family comes up: ``I am in incredible pain, but I forgive 
you.'' Those were the words that were repeated by each of the nine 
families: ``I forgive you, I forgive you, and I forgive you.''
  That set in motion and, if you will, set the stage this last week in 
Charleston for a level of community that I have never before seen in my 
life and amazing things done at the church and in the community at 
large.
  It is for that reason that we all stand here to remember the names of 
the nine victims and to pause for a moment of silence here in just a 
moment.
  If I might, let me read the names of the victims: Reverend Clementa 
Pinckney; Tywanza Sanders; Cynthia Hurd; Reverend Sharonda Coleman-
Singleton; Myra Thompson; Ethel Lance; Reverend Daniel Simmons, Sr.; 
Reverend Depayne Middleton-Doctor; and Susie Jackson.
  Would you all join me and join us in a moment of silence.

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