Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, is planning to open a memorial honoring its members who were murdered during a Bible study by an avowed white supremacist in 2015.
The Emanuel Nine Memorial Foundation broke ground on the memorial in 2023, with approximately $19.9 million having been raised for the project as of last month.
The first phase of the project, known as the Memorial Courtyard, is slated for completion early next year, according to ABC News affiliate WCIV in Charleston.
The courtyard will include two large benches on opposite sides and a fountain that will have the names of those killed in the 2015 mass shooting carved into the edge.
After the Memorial Courtyard is completed, the team plans to work on phase two, known as the Survivors’ Garden, according to memorial architect Michael Arad.
Once completed, the garden will feature five oak trees and benches, with each being dedicated to a survivor of the shooting. There will also be a sixth bench dedicated to the church.
“At the end of the day, what we wanted to do is create a congregational space. A place that brings people together, a place that responds with beauty to hate, a place that responds with love,” Arad told WCIV.
“I think that's so important to bring people here to reflect on what happened here and to hopefully leave the space changed and determined to do better in this world.”
On June 17, 2015, 21-year-old Dylann Roof entered the historic congregation of Emanuel AME during a Bible study and opened fire, killing nine people and wounding another. Roof had reportedly wanted to start a race war with the mass shooting.
In December 2016, a jury found Roof guilty of 33 charges of federal hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations for his actions at the church.
Roof was sentenced to death in January 2017, which made him the first person in the history of the United States to be ordered executed for being found guilty of a federal hate crime.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the sentence in August 2021, noting that no legal record "can capture the full horror of what Roof did."
Following the tragedy, the church received millions of dollars in donations, with a portion of the proceeds going to the victims' families.
In early 2019, the church was investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division after a former Emanuel AME employee alleged that donations were being mishandled.
However, in November 2019, Tommy Crosby, spokesman for the state Law Enforcement Division, announced that investigators “completed their review” and found “no evidence” of financial misconduct by church leadership.
