Clementa C. Pinckney

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Clementa C. Pinckney
File:Reverend Clementa Pinckney.jpg
Member of the South Carolina Senate
from the 45th district
In office
January 2001 – June 17, 2015
Preceded by McKinley Washington
Succeeded by Margie Bright Matthews
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives
from the 122nd district
In office
January 1997 – January 2001
Preceded by Juanita Mitchell White
Succeeded by Thayer Rivers
Personal details
Born Clementa Carlos Pinckney
(1973-07-30)July 30, 1973
Beaufort, South Carolina, U.S.
Died Error: Need valid death date (first date): year, month, day
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Resting place Saint James Cemetery
Marion, South Carolina, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Jennifer Pinckney
Children 2
Alma mater Allen University
University of South Carolina, Columbia
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
Wesley Theological Seminary
Religion African Methodist Episcopal

Clementa Carlos "Clem"[1][2] Pinckney (July 30, 1973 – June 17, 2015) was a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 45th District from 2000 until his death in 2015. He was previously a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1997 through 2000.[3][4]

Pinckney was a senior pastor at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston.[5][6] On June 17, 2015, Pinckney was assassinated in a mass shooting at an evening Bible study at his church.[7][8][9] U.S. President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy at Pinckney's memorial in his honor.[10][11][12]

Early life and education

Pinckney was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, the son of Theopia Stevenson Aikens (née Brooms; 1945–2005), an early childhood development educator, and John Pinckney, auto mechanic.[13][14][15][16] Pinckney had at least six brothers and sisters.[17] He began preaching at his church at age 13 and, by age 18, was appointed pastor.[3]

Pinckney's mother's family, the Stevenson family, has many generations of pastors in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A maternal great-grandfather, Reverend Lorenzo Stevenson, brought a lawsuit against the state Democratic Party to end unintegrated primaries. During the Civil Rights movement, an uncle named Reverend Levern Stevenson worked with the NAACP to desegregate school buses, and sued Gov. John C. West to create single-member districts to help elect more blacks into the South Carolina General Assembly.[18] Pinckney's father's family, the Pinckney family, based in the Beaufort, South Carolina area could possibly be descendants of slaves owned by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who was instrumental in framing the United States Constitution and was part of the Middleton-Rutledge-Pinckney family, a family that included many politicians. The Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge is where the plantation was located.[19][20]

Pinckney went to Jasper County High school,[14] where he was elected class president two years.[21] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Allen University in 1995 and went on to obtain a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of South Carolina in 1999.[3][22] He then obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.[23][24] Pinckney was a student at Wesley Theological Seminary pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree.[25]

Career

Religious career

Pinckney preached in Beaufort, Charleston, and Columbia.[26] He became pastor of Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2010.[18][27] As part of his work, Pinckney oversaw 17 churches in the area.[21]

In his leadership position at Mother Emanuel, Pinckney followed in the footsteps of Reverend Richard H. Cain and other AME church leaders, continuing a tradition of religious leaders serving in political positions with a focus on political activism in service to his community.[28] Pinckney said he felt a deep connection between serving his community in politics in complement to his ministry work.[29] Historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. featured Pinckney in interviews for his award-winning PBS series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.[30][31]

Pinckney was among several South Carolina pastors to hold rallies after the shooting of Walter Scott in 2015, attracting some local controversy.[3]

Legislative career

Pinckney was first elected to the South Carolina General Assembly in 1996 at the age of 23, becoming the youngest African American elected as a South Carolina state legislator.[32] He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives until being elected to the South Carolina Senate in 2000. Pinckney was a Democrat[33] and was a member of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus.[34] Pinckney represented Allendale, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper Counties in South Carolina.[35] At the time of his death, he was on the following Committees: Banking and Insurance, Corrections and Penology, Education, Finance, and Medical Affairs.[16]

As a state senator, Pinckney pushed for laws[36] to require police and other law enforcement officials to wear body cameras after Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, was shot eight times in the back by a police officer in North Charleston.[3][37][38] In April 2015, Pinckney gave an impassioned speech[39][40] on the topic at the South Carolina Senate, citing the fact that national news had come to North Charleston because of the video tape of the incident.[41]

Assassination

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See also: Charleston church shooting

On the night of June 17, 2015, Pinckney was killed in the Charleston church shooting.[21] He spent the earlier part of that day campaigning with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Charleston.[42] That evening, he led a Bible study and prayer session at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he was senior pastor. A shooter, suspected to be 21-year-old male, specifically asked for Pinckney and later opened fire on the congregation, killing Pinckney and eight others.[43] While the FBI investigated the mass shooting as a hate crime,[3][44] many others considered the attack a racially motivated act of terrorism, and criticized law enforcement and the media for not labeling it as such.[45][46]

On June 24, 2015, there was a public viewing of Pinckney's casket in the rotunda lobby of the State Capitol Senate Chamber where Pinckney served in the South Carolina legislature, and where his body laid in state.[47][48] Public viewings were held at St. John AME Church in Ridgeland, South Carolina, and Mother Emanuel in Charleston, South Carolina. A funeral was held on June 26, 2015, at the College of Charleston in TD Arena, which was filled up to maximum capacity,[49] necessitating a viewing center with a video feed at the Charleston Museum.[50][51][52] President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Jill Biden, among many other politicians and public figures, attended the funeral, with Obama giving the eulogy.[53][54][55] During the eulogy, Obama sang the opening stanza of "Amazing Grace".[56]

Aftermath

As a result of the shooting, in July 2015, the South Carolina Legislature put forth a bill to take down a Confederate flag that had been flown in front of the statehouse by state law since 2000 and move it to the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.[57] The shooter had previously posed in front of and posted images of a similar flag on his website. Pinckney's widow attended the session during the final vote to thank her husband's colleagues for their support.[58] The bill was passed and a Confederate flag will no longer be displayed at the South Carolina Statehouse.[59]

In June 2015, the family of Pinckney established the Clementa C. Pinckney Foundation to support poor families in the lowcountry region. Jennifer Pinckney, his wife, Senator Gerald Malloy, who served with Pinckney in the Senate, and Reverend Kylon Jerome Middleton, Ph.D., Pinckney's best friend, established the foundation in Pinckney's honor to support educational, health, pastoral training, and charitable causes.[60] In July 2015, Mother Emanuel, in response to anonymous donations of more than $3 million,[61] established The Reverend Pinckney Scholarship Fund, which was created to support education scholarship for church members, victims of the shooting and their extended families.[62] The initial fund was overseen by Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr, historian and educator Henry Louis Gates Jr and investment banker William M. Lewis Jr.[61]

In August 2015, a new Charleston County middle school was approved by Charleston County School District to be named Simmons-Pinckney Middle School in joint honor of both Pinckney and blacksmith Philip Simmons.[63]

Personal life

In 1999, Pinckney married Jennifer Pinckney (née Benjamin) in Augusta, Georgia. They met while he was at Allen University and she was at the University of South Carolina.[64] The couple lived in Ridgeland, South Carolina with their two daughters, Eliana Yvette Pinckney[65] and Malana Elise Pinckney.[10][16][66] Pinckney was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[67] Pinckney's name is in honor of the baseball player Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates because his mother loved baseball.[14] During his eulogy, multiple friends and family pronounced his first name as "Clemen-tay".[10]

Pinckney was buried in Marion, South Carolina[68] at the St. James AME Cemetery.[17][69]

References

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External links

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