In Memphis, a plea for understanding

I'll never forget the sadness I felt on June 17, 2015, when, after inviting himself to a prayer service at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, 21-year-old Dylann Roof murdered nine black members of the church. Roof was motivated to commit these murders after adopting white supremacist ideology, and as a black woman I was especially horrified by the particular choice of Mother Emanuel, the desecration of the church and the callous murder of the prayer circle.