Graham: Best way to honor murdered sister is to speak up, take action against injustice

Seven months after his sister was gunned down in a Charleston church, former N.C state Sen. Malcolm Graham said Monday that she’d want him and others who grieve over injustice to get up off their knees and go to work to change a system that still tolerates poverty, racial hatred, gun violence and unequal access to quality education.

Graham, the keynote speaker at the McCrorey YMCA’s 22nd annual MLK Holiday breakfast, told an uptown crowd of more than 1,200 people that Cynthia Graham Hurd, his older sister and the “mother figure” in his life, “can’t be remembered as just a victim. She was more than that – much more than that.”

A longtime librarian who died days before what would have been her 55th birthday, Hurd was among nine African-Americans shot to death last June as they attended a Bible study at historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The man accused of killing them had made a number of Internet postings expressing white supremacist views and reportedly told investigators he hoped the attack would start a race war.

Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated by a white racist in 1968, “Cynthia would not have wanted me to be bitter or to harbor hatred. She would want me to continue to fight for her and for you,” Graham told his audience at the Charlotte Convention Center. “That’s what I will continue to do. And I elicit every one of you to fight with me as we combat these issues that are still with us today.”

Graham reported that the Charleston County Library system, where Hurd worked for 31 years, has named a regional library for her. The College of Charleston, where Hurd was a part-time librarian at night for 16 years, has named a prestigious academic scholarship for her. And Graham, who called his sister a guardian, protector, political counselor and friend, is launching a foundation in her honor that will focus on reading and writing.

“Those were the things she was very passionate about,” said Graham, who described his sister’s Charleston home as overrun with books.

But Graham said he would also honor her memory by speaking up and tackling problems that are still with Charlotte, the Carolinas and the country a half-century after King battled them in the 1960s.

“We have to say something. We have to do something,” said Graham, who also said he’s been inspired by the New Testament passage that “faith without works is dead.”

Even though King knew his words and deeds would often cause discomfort to people in power or those who kept silent, “conscience required him to take those actions,” Graham said. “And conscience requires us to do the same.”

Graham, 53, told the crowd Monday that his family had a long relationship with the church where his sister was killed – a place often called “Mother Emanuel.”

Graham’s mother and aunt sang in the choir, his sister Jackie was married there, his parents are buried in the church graveyard. And Graham – the youngest child in the family – did his Easter prayer there.

It was “Jesus wept,” he said. “Standing ovation.”

The June 2015 murders in Charleston recalled the 1963 bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four girls. It, too, was the work of a white racist.

King gave the eulogy for those girls. And on Monday, Graham quoted some of the Baptist preacher’s words, saying they could have been said at his sister’s funeral, too.

Graham also included in his speech King’s invitation to use the tragedy to focus on a system that would allow such an assault on people because of their race.

A year after the Birmingham bombing, Congress passed the sweeping Civil Rights Act. And last year, after decades of failed efforts by the NAACP, the Confederate flag came down in South Carolina.

“It took the death of nine individuals for the state of South Carolina to find its moral compass,” Graham said.

While some families of those killed at Emanuel AME have forgiven the shooter, Dylann Roof, Graham told those at the YMCA breakfast that he’s still not there yet.

“I’m still on the road to understanding,” he said. “Have not even gotten to the road of forgiveness yet. ... Why, in the house of God, do nine innocent people have to die? Where was God?”

He said he got his answer in the very name of the church – Emanuel, which means “God with us.”

“He was with them,” Graham said of those killed as they conducted their Bible study, with heads bowed and eyes closed.

Moving forward, Graham said, “there’s a whole lot of work to do” to continue what King started and to honor his sister, from alleviating poverty to addressing the mass incarceration of African-American males to ending the scourge of gun violence.

Graham left the crowd with what he called an old saying about tears and sweat.

“They’re both salty,” he said. “Tears will get you sympathy. But sweat will get you change.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Graham: Best way to honor murdered sister is to speak up, take action against injustice."