This fundraiser is for the families of the Emanuel AME 9. All proceeds will go to the Mother Emanuel AME Hope Fund. Buy a T-shirt to honor and memorialize those who died , show your solidarity with Emanuel AME and send financial support to their families.

Imagine if they had died in a natural disaster. Some would say that the massacre in which they died was a natural event in this country’s evolution of violence and racism. But social analysis aside, there has to be a moment that is not about flags, gun laws, or racism—there has to be a moment that is just about souls lost, tears shed, hearts broken. So right now, take a moment and imagine if the Emanuel AME 9 had died in a natural disaster. We would remember them. They would get their moments of silence. We would think of their families. We would remember their names. Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Sharonda Singleton, Myra Thompson, DePayne Middleton Doctor. We would say her name and her name and her name and her name and her name and her name., Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons Sr. We would cry out “my brother” again and again and again. We would give to their widows and widowers, comfort their children, send condolences to their family and friends. And we would always be focused right there in that little spotlight on these nine people, nine names, nine families recognizing the pain of loss, the sadness of being without a father, mother, grandmother, husband, wife, sister, friend.

We would see our pain in their pain, remember the way we survived the loss of our own loved ones and the only thing symbolic in our sympathy would be the extending of our comforting hand, which cannot reach hundreds of miles to touch the shoulders of their surviving family members so our hands would wave solemnly in the air—feeling the sadness, the sympathy, the empathy for each individual person and his daughters, each individual person and her grandson.

This T-shirt is symbolic of our waving hands –to remember their names, our sympathy, our empathy, our oneness with the living and the deceased. The proceeds from the purchase will be sent to Emanuel AME on behalf of the victims’ families and the shirt will speak your heartfelt connection with each person who died and each family that lost a loved one. Buy your Memorial T-shirt here.