Thousands Gather To Remember Rev. Clementa Pinckney

[gtxvideo vid=”JsQup0th” playlist=”” pid=”Bbt3TRDe” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/JsQup0th.jpg” vtitle=”pinckney funeral”]

CHARLESTON, SC — President Obama leads a crowd of mourners singing Amazing Grace during the funeral for the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. Thousands packed an arena at the College of Charleston to remember the Pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church. Pinckney, who was also a State Senator, was one of nine people murdered during a Bible study last week.

Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s funeral was much like a state funeral. One may have thought a head of state died.  President Obama was here. Speaker John Boehner was here.  But there was also a common touch. A 104-year-old member of his congregation was here too. Then the celebration started.

A homegoing that lasted an entire day, just like murdered Emanuel AME Church Pastor Clementa Pinckney would have wanted: his funeral turned into a full blown church service.

“It was just an amazing service to help us have hope in these times,” said Columbia, SC resident Aaron Bishop.

A celebration of faith with personal touches.

“When Clementa Pinckney entered a room, it was like the future arrive,” said President Obama.  “That even from a young age, folks knew he was special.”

With dozens of local, state and national political leaders on hand from both sides of the aisle, President Obama’s eulogy quickly shifted from spiritual, to political, and pretty bold.

“Every time something like this happens, somebody says ‘We’ve got to have a conversation about race’. We talk a lot about race. There’s no shortcut. We don’t need more talk,” said the President.

Yet the more he talked, the more fired up the crowd got.

“For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation,” he said.

“I wanted him to talk about the issues that are so relative to the state of South Carolina, because we are just beginning a battle for the legacy of what Sen. Pinckney started in South Carolina,” added Bishop.

Now that Pinckney’s funeral is over his legacy will continue not only through his work, but soon, his portrait will hang in the halls of the state senate chamber where he served.