By Eric Johnson for Carolina Alumni Review
Elijah Heyward (‘07 M.A.R.) has long been fascinated by historical memory in the South — what we honor and what we choose to bury. …
“Where does the African American experience show up in history, especially in Southern culture?” Heyward asks. “I was interested in a university that could give me the tools to promote and preserve that.” He settled into UNC’s American studies department thinking he might become a professor, someone who interprets society and history for the next generation.
That changed when a radicalized racist named Dylann Roof walked into the centuries-old church on Charleston’s Calhoun Street, sat through a group Bible study, then shot to death nine of the worshippers who had welcomed him. Roof hoped to ignite a purifying race war, and he thought Charleston was the right place to do it.
July 27, 2020