Obama to give eulogy at funeral of Charleston pastor murdered during South Carolina church shooting
- Vice President Joe Biden will also attend the Charleston, South Carolina, funeral service of Emanuel AME pastor, the late Rev. Clementa Pinckney
- Obama and Biden both acknowledged in their statements last Thursday that they were friends of the reverend and South Carolina state senator
- He the youngest African American to be elected to his state legislature
By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 20:07 GMT, 22 June 2015 | UPDATED: 22:21 GMT, 22 June 2015
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President Barack Obama will give the eulogy at the funeral of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor, the late Rev. Clementa Pinckney, on Friday, the White House has confirmed.
The news was first reported by The Post and Courier this afternoon and was quickly confirmed by the White House.
Vice President Joe Biden will also attend the Charleston, South Carolina, funeral service.
Additional details about the president's trip were not immediately available.
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Pictured is the late Rev. Clementa Pinckney at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The White House announced today that the president will speak at his funeral this Friday
President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden both acknowledged in their statements last Thursday that they were friends of the reverend and South Carolina state senator, age 41
Obama: 'Racism remains a blight we have to combat together'
Obama and Biden both acknowledged in their statements last Thursday that they were friends of the reverend and South Carolina state senator, age 41, who was the youngest African American to be elected to his state legislature at age 23.
'Michelle and I know several members of Emanuel AME Church. We knew their pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who, along with eight others, gathered in prayer and fellowship and was murdered last night,' the president said the morning after the tragedy, speaking from the White House press briefing room.
'And to say our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families, and their community doesn’t say enough to convey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we feel,' he said.
The vice president recalled that he saw Pinckney less than a year ago during a visit to Charleston.
'He was a good man, a man of faith, a man of service who carried forward Mother Emanuel's legacy as a sacred place promoting freedom, equality, and justice for all,' the vice president said in a release provided to reporters by the White House.
He added, 'We pray for him and his sister as we do for the seven other innocent souls who entered that storied church for their weekly Bible study seeking nothing more than humble guidance for the full lives ahead of them.'
A church member places a black cloth on the chair of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, before services at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sunday. The church held its first service since a mass shooting left nine people dead during a bible study
Church elders decided to hold the regularly scheduled Sunday school and worship service as they continue to grieve
Pinckney was among the nine churchgoers who were murdered last Wednesday in cold blood by a white shooter while participating in a bible study. His sister was initially thought to have been killed, as well, but that did not turn out to be the case.
The man believed to have committed the massacre is 21-year-old Dylann Roof.
He reportedly confessed to police and admitted the act of violence was influenced by the race of the congregants.
'You rape our women, and you’re taking over our country,' he reportedly shouted at the victims, as he shot them multiple times.
Roof's roommate told authorities, according to ABC News, that the suspected shooter was into 'segregation' and wanted to 'make something spark up the race war again.'
Pinckney is survived by by his wife Jennifer and two daughters, Eliana and Malana.
The prominent South Carolina was first elected to the statehouse in 1996. In 2000 he won his bid for the state Senate.
During it's first service since the shooting, on Sunday, Emanuel AME honored congregants honored their late pastor by placing a black cloth on the chair he once occupied.
A black cloth was also placed over his desk at the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia. A single rose, surrounded by baby's breath, in a vase sat atop his desk on Friday.
Sisters Margaret Kerry, Mary Thecla and Kathleen Lang of the Order of the Daughters of St. Paul pray outside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Friday. It is the oldest black congregation in America south of Baltimore
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