© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

We Are Charleston

  This week’s guests on Walter Edgar's Journalare the authors of the book We Are Charleston(2016 Thomas Nelson), a multi-layered exploration of the tragic events experienced by South Carolina’s famed Mother Emanuel in June of 2015.

Written by Herb Frazier (award-winning journalist and childhood member of Mother Emanuel), Dr. Bernard Edward Powers (A.M.E. Church member and professor of history at the College of Charleston) and Marjory Wentworth (South Carolina’s Poet Laureate), the book is based on extensive interviews with family and friends of “The Emanuel Nine” – the church members who lost their lives on June 17, 2015, when a young man opened fire on a prayer meeting at the church.

We Are Charleston details the 230-year history of the A.M.E. Church – the largest body of African-American Methodists with 7.5 million members world-wide – and its role in America’s social justice story from slavery to the civil rights movement. The book also discusses the importance of Mother Emanuel Church itself, both to the Charleston community and to the nation.

All Stations: Fri, Aug 19, 12 pm | News Stations: Sun, Aug 21, 4 pm

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.