Emanuel Nine Memorial

Emanuel Nine Memorial Honoring the Emanuel Nine, victims and survivors of a tragic racially motivated mass murder. Join us to share stories of resilience, support unity and healing.

Together, we ensure their memory lives on.

After June 17, 2015, artist Gil Shuler designed “Nine Doves” as a tribute to the Nine.That design was later painted at s...
08/21/2026

After June 17, 2015, artist Gil Shuler designed “Nine Doves” as a tribute to the Nine.

That design was later painted at scale along Rutledge Avenue in Charleston. The mural is twelve feet high and 293 feet long, painted by community members, Citadel cadets, and city officials working alongside one another.

At its dedication, nine live doves were released, one for each of the Nine.

The wall, still seen on Rutledge today, is a lasting reminder of the city’s response.

Reverend Eric Manning has been the senior pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church since 2017.He arrived less than two years ...
08/13/2026

Reverend Eric Manning has been the senior pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church since 2017.

He arrived less than two years after June 17th, 2015, and has guided the congregation through the long work that has followed: healing, rebuilding, and welcoming visitors from around the world who come to grieve and to remember.

He sits on the board of the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation as co-chair. He often speaks about the memorial being built on the solid rock of faith, hope, and love that has sustained this congregation for generations.

Sixty-one years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.Three years earlier, in 196...
08/06/2026

Sixty-one years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

Three years earlier, in 1962, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. stood in the pulpit of Mother Emanuel AME Church and urged members to register and vote.

That law was the product of years of work by Black churches across the country. Mother Emanuel was one of them.

After the Civil War, Reverend Richard H. Cain was named the first pastor of the newly recognized Emanuel AME Church. He ...
08/04/2026

After the Civil War, Reverend Richard H. Cain was named the first pastor of the newly recognized Emanuel AME Church. He selected the name “Emanuel” for the congregation, meaning “God with us.”

While leading the church, Cain served in the South Carolina State Senate from 1868 to 1872. In 1872, he was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives, where he served two terms during Reconstruction.

He was both pastor and elected official, the two roles held together as one calling.

More than 130 years later, Reverend Clementa Pinckney did the same. He was senior pastor of Mother Emanuel while serving in the South Carolina State Senate. He was lost on June 17, 2015, in the church he led.

This is a lineage. Faith and public service have been intertwined at Mother Emanuel since 1865.

Over the past decade, hundreds of hands have shaped the Emanuel Nine Memorial.Volunteers from across Charleston and beyo...
07/31/2026

Over the past decade, hundreds of hands have shaped the Emanuel Nine Memorial.

Volunteers from across Charleston and beyond have given their time, their skill, and their patience to this project. From envisioning the memorial and the Survivors Garden, to planning, production, and installation, every stage has been touched by many.

A memorial of this scale is not built by one person or by one team. It is built by a community choosing to show up again and again.

What hatred could not anticipate is a community that would build something together, slowly and steadily, in response with love.

Since 2015, Mother Emanuel has become a place that communities facing tragedy often look to for guidance, healing, and h...
07/30/2026

Since 2015, Mother Emanuel has become a place that communities facing tragedy often look to for guidance, healing, and hope

On October 27, 2018, eleven people were killed in a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Within days, Rev. Eric Manning, pastor of Mother Emanuel, reached out to Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and traveled to Pittsburgh to meet him. Members of Mother Emanuel followed. Members of Tree of Life have since visited Charleston in return and participated in the 10th Commemoration worship service.

The two congregations call this work a “ministry of presence.”

After the Buffalo Tops shooting in 2022, members of Mother Emanuel offered support to that community as well. Chris Singleton, whose mother, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, was killed in 2015, has worked with the Buffalo community in the years since.

A congregation that was held in 2015 has been holding others ever since.

The Emanuel Nine Memorial is being built by the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation, an independent nonprofit that has be...
07/29/2026

The Emanuel Nine Memorial is being built by the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation, an independent nonprofit that has been working on this project for over a decade.

The Foundation is a separate legal entity from Mother Emanuel AME Church, with its own board and its own focus. Its work has included raising funds, overseeing construction, developing educational programs, and planning for the long-term care of the memorial. The construction goal is $25 million; nearly $20 million has been raised or pledged.

The Foundation is building more than a place to visit. Through its Crossroads Education and Outreach program, it is shaping conversations about acknowledgment, reconciliation, forgiveness, and empowerment. The work will outlast the construction itself.

07/23/2026

Last month, the final piece of the Fellowship Benches was placed.

Two massive curved marble installations now face each other beside Mother Emanuel. Each stone stands to support the one beside it.

To the fabrication and installation team: thank you for the care, the patience, and the skill that has brought us here. We are one step closer to the opening.

—

Stone fabrication + installation by Quarra Stone Company, LLC — Sun Prairie, WI. On site team: Brian Adams, Marc Vaage, Peter Vaughan, Chad Crull

Three years ago today, ground was broken for the Emanuel Nine Memorial.In the years since, Phase 1 of the project has ta...
07/22/2026

Three years ago today, ground was broken for the Emanuel Nine Memorial.

In the years since, Phase 1 of the project has taken shape. The Fellowship Benches, the Names Fountain, and the Contemplation Basin are coming together. The Survivors’ Garden and the reimagined church grounds will follow.

Polly Sheppard was born in Florence, South Carolina, in 1944. As a girl, she worked the cotton fields, then soldered par...
07/17/2026

Polly Sheppard was born in Florence, South Carolina, in 1944. As a girl, she worked the cotton fields, then soldered parts at a motor company after graduation. When that work moved abroad, she went back to school and became a nurse. She raised four sons and spent fourteen years as a nurse at the Charleston County jail.

She was a pillar of strength long before June 17, 2015.

That night, she was inside Mother Emanuel for Bible study. When the shooting began, she hid under a table at the back of the Fellowship Hall and called 911. The shooter told her he was letting her live to tell the story, and she has been telling her own ever since.

She did not retreat from the horrors she survived, but moved forward filled with purpose, founding the Polly Sheppard Foundation, which grants scholarships to nurses going into prison and detention center work. She advocates for a hate crime law in South Carolina, and she serves on the board of the Emanuel Nine Memorial Foundation, and leads with financial and spiritual support to shape its legacy of love and peace.

Polly Sheppard is a force. The kind that is fueled by faith.

Address

110 Calhoun Street
Charleston, SC
29401

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 1pm

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