Obama delivers passionate eulogy for slain pastor in Charleston

CHARLESTON, S.C. — President Obama delivered a passionate discourse on America’s racial history Friday in his eulogy for a state senator and pastor, slain along with eight other black churchgoers in what police called a hate crime.

Thousands of mourners eagerly awaited Obama’s speech, which capped a week of sorrowful goodbyes and stunning political developments.

The slayings inside the Emanuel African Methodist Church last week have prompted a sudden reconsideration of the Civil War symbols that were invoked to assert white supremacy during the South’s segregation era.

Pinckney came from a long line of preachers and protesters who worked to expand voting rights across the South, Obama said.

An act he presumed would deepen divisions that trace back to our nation’s original sin, Obama continued, his voice rising in the cadence of the preachers who preceded him.

“Oh, but God works in mysterious ways!” Obama said, and the crowd rose to give him a standing ovation.

Obama then spoke plainly about the ugliness of America’s racial history — from slavery to the many ways minorities have been deprived of equal rights in more recent times.

The revelation that shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof had embraced Confederate symbols before the attack, posing with the rebel battle flag and burning the U.S. flag in photos posted online, prompted the stunning turnaround, despite the outsized role such symbols have played in Southern identity.

The “Mother Emanuel” choir, hundreds strong, led roughly 6,000 people through rousing gospel standards between speakers who celebrated the legacy of Pinckney and his fellow churchgoers.