Obama sings hymn of hope in eulogy for slain church members

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — President Barack Obama sang a hymn of hope and spoke with the fervor of a preacher as he eulogized a pastor and eight parishioners gunned down at a historic black church in an apparent hate crime — and he minced no words in calling for an end to racial injustice and gun violence in the United States.

The nation's first black president called for gun control and efforts to eliminate poverty and job discrimination, and said the Confederate battle flag — long a symbol of Southern pride — must be removed from places of honor.

The president came to eulogize the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a state senator and pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, a church founded by the leader of a failed slave revolt and burned to the ground by angry whites in 1822.

Americans should want to fight poverty with as much effort as they fight hate, and realize that hate isn't always obvious, he said, "so that we're guarding against not just racial slurs, but we're guarding against the subtle impulse to call Johnny back for a job interview, but not Jamal."

Justice Department officials broadly agree the shootings meet the legal requirements for a hate crime, meaning federal charges are likely, a federal law enforcement source told The Associated Press on Thursday, speaking anonymously because the investigation is ongoing.

Dylann Storm Roof, now charged with nine murders, embraced Confederate symbols before the attack, posing with the rebel battle flag and burning the U.S. flag in photos.

[...] as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge — including, Gov. Haley whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise — as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.