We Are Charleston Quotes

“As South Carolina’s black labor force grew and reduced whites to minority status, their fears rose accordingly, especially given their perception of African people. Carolina’s first comprehensive slave code, passed in 1712, confirms this. After its preamble explains why slavery was an absolute necessity, it issued a stern warning about the dangerous presence of African people. The Negroes, it said, “are of barbarous, wild, savage natures,” wholly unfit to be governed under the enlightened law of the province. Therefore special laws were required “for the good regulating and ordering of them, as may restrain the disorders, rapines and inhumanity, to which they are naturally prone and inclined; and may also tend to the safety and security of the people of this Province and their estates.” Under these circumstances and to maintain order, it was necessary for all whites to cooperate and, if necessary, use violence to enforce the law.”
― Herb Frazier, We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel

“And if there was any doubt, the events of the previous year—in Ferguson, Baltimore, and North Charleston—clearly showed that race still mattered in America, but black lives seemed not to.”
― Herb Frazier, We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel