Keynoting a panel discussion at the Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch took time to recognize the dark memories the Charleston, S.C. shootings evoked.
“For many of us, as we watched that event, as we watched the aftermath, it took us back to a time we thought was over,” Lynch said. “This is a new day. Look who’s in the White House. Look who’s at the Department of Justice … we thought we had moved past this history of bigotry and brutality.”
Lynch compared the Charleston shootings to the infamous Birmingham bombings of the 1960s. “Fifty-two years ago this week, four little girls went to church in the morning … attending a sermon entitled ‘The Love That Forgives,’ and they didn’t come home that day.”
Lynch made clear her department’s continued commitment to prosecuting the alleged shooter, 19-year-old Dylan Roof, for federal hate crimes, in addition to the state-level murder charges.
The attorney general detailed her family’s long misgivings about the efficacy and fairness of the law, describing the plight of her grandfather, who helped members of the community who were “caught up in the clutches of the law.”
“He would actually hide them, until they could leave the community … In those days, 1930s North Carolina, there was no justice,” she said. “No Miranda warnings, no procedural protections, none of the things we take for granted today.”
Lynch was over an hour late for her scheduled speaking time and apologized several times. She said that her excuse was indicative of some progress. “I was late today because I had a meeting with the president that ran over,” she said.
President Obama is scheduled to address the Black Caucus himself Saturday evening.
