A Nov. 22, 2010 photo shows the Rev. Clementa Pinckney at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. Pinckney, a pastor at Mother Emanuel AME Church, died June 17, 2015, in the mass shooting at the church. (Grace Beahm/The Post and Courier via AP)
The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, publicly laid to rest and eulogized on June 26, was South Carolinian born and bred, but he had strong ties to the Washington, D.C. area. Pinckney was a doctoral student at the District’s Wesley Theological Seminary at the time of his death.
He was allegedly killed by White Supremacist Dylann Roof on June 18 at the Emanuel A.M. E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina. While Wesley is a primarily United Methodist affiliated institution, it has had a number of AM.E. graduates throughout its 133 year history.
David McAllister, the president of Wesley, said that Pinckney was a student who possessed special gifts and traits. “The Rev. Pinckney began the Wesley’s doctor of ministry in May 2012 and Dr. Lew Parks referred to him as a ‘star’,” McAllister said. “He was working on his project under Dr. Lovett Weems.”
McAllister said that Wesley “holds in prayer the Rev. Pinckney’s wife and two children.”
Montreal Martin, the president of the Association of Black Seminarians at Wesley, told the AFRO that he knew Pinckney. “He was a man of integrity and he was respected,” Martin, who is a master’s degree candidate at the school, said. “He was a man of character who was always positive and he was a source of motivation for me. I looked up to him.”
The Rev. C. Anthony Muse, who is a Democratic Maryland state senator representing Prince George’s County’s District 26, said he had a special kinship with Pinckney. Pinckney was a member of the South Carolina State Senate as well as a Democrat when he was killed.
“There are only a few of us who served in the dual roles of pastors and state senators,” Muse, who is the pastor at the Ark of Safety Christian Church in Upper Marlboro, Md., said. “Sen. Pinckney and I attended Wesley Seminary and I knew of his reputation and great works.”
Pinckney and Muse belonged to the District-based National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), an organization of politicians representing their constituents in state capitols across the country. Pinckney would travel to Washington often to attend meetings of the organization and visit federal lawmakers on behalf of his constituents and his state.
Maryland State Sen. Catherine Pugh (D-Baltimore City), president of NBCSL, said that Pinckney’s murder was a “heartbreaking event that has shocked an entire community and ended the work of a great politician who was well-regarded in the statehouse.”
“The work Sen. Pinckney was able to accomplish in his 17 years of service in the legislature will continue to be a part of the legacy of this dedicated public servant,” Pugh said. “Most importantly, all of our members send our thoughts and prayers to his wife and two daughters. This incident has struck me as well as others, as a reminder that we still have a long way to go in stamping out racism, hate and intolerance.”
