Racist massacre survivor urges hate crimes law in S Carolina

By JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — With the opportunity to make South Carolina the 49th state to pass a hate crimes law nearly gone, supporters turned to one of the survivors of the most heinous racist attack in modern America to make their case. They showed a two minute video of Polly Sheppard in the Senate chamber where the bill has been stuck for months with eight Republicans senators objecting to it. Sheppard says in the video those senators are giving a safe haven to hate. Sheppard’s life was spared at Emanuel AME in Charleston while nine other Black parishioners were killed. The shooter told her he spared her so she could tell the world hate was the motivation.