The brutal and ghastly murders of nine African Americans as they sat in church for a Wednesday evening Bible study is a terrible reminder that white supremacy remains a danger in our communities.  The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) mourns the lives lost, and calls on all people of good will to support the people of this Charleston, South Carolina church, to forthrightly oppose racism and white supremacy and to uphold the dignity of all the lives lost in the searing incident. 

We remind everyone that the African-American church has been an institution of special significance, and the one place where the independent power of black people has been exercised.  We call on everyone—Jews, Christians, Muslims, other faiths, and non-believers—to defend the black churches in their communities and to prevent this incident from spreading into a rash of violence directed at these churches.