National

Mourners Recall SC Shooting Victim in Funeral at Church

Published

11 years ago

June 30, 2015

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, center, with son and daughter-in-law Hunter and Kathleen Biden, to his right, sing We Shall Overcome while joining hands with Emanuel AME Church members Sunday, June 28, 2015 in Charleston, S.C. Biden delivered a short speech and said he was there to stand in solidarity with the church and families of the nine people who were killed June 17. (Melissa Boughton/The Post and Courier via AP)

JOHN MORITZ, Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - The day she was killed along with eight others during Bible study at a South Carolina church, Myra Thompson achieved her goal of becoming a minister.

Hundreds honored Thompson, 59, in a service Monday at the site of the deadly shooting, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

“This is a woman who I want to strive to be,” South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said of Thompson. “She wanted every person she came in touch with to make them better.”

Haley broke down as she repeated a message from other victims’ funerals in recent days, apologizing for attacks that “happened on my watch.”

Thompson’s daughter, Denise Quarles, said the former public school teacher and middle school guidance counselor loved to tell stories.

“A quick phone call was never a quick phone call,” she said.

Friends and family said Thompson was a studious hard worker who led the historic African-American church’s property committee and served on its board of trustees. A program for the service said Thompson began working to become an ordained AME minister in 2014 and received her license to preach June 17, the day of the shooting.

Thompson’s widower, the Rev. Anthony Thompson, told the white male suspect in the shooting, Dylann Storm Roof, at a court appearance last week that the family forgives him.

“We would like you to take this opportunity to repent,” Anthony Thompson said by video stream. “Do that, and you’ll be better off than you are right now.”

All nine of the victims in the shooting were black, and police contend the attack was racially motivated.

Thompson’s funeral followed services for four other victims at Emanuel AME this weekend that brought political and religious leaders from across the country.

Those who spoke at the services echoed the similar theme that the lives lost would bring about positive social change.

Haley and the Rev. Jesse Jackson attended the funerals Saturday and Sunday.

During the Saturday funeral for Tywanza Sanders, 26, and his aunt, Susie Jackson, 87, Haley promised “we will make this right.” The governor did not say what actions she planned to take.

Haley has already joined a host of politicians in Southern states who have spoken out in favor of removing symbols of the Confederacy from flags, monuments and license plates after Roof was shown in photos posing with a Confederate battle flag and burning the U.S. flag.

Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley Jr. said at Saturday’s service for Cynthia Hurd, 54, that the tragedy “shook an America that didn’t want to believe this kind of hatred could still exist.”

Hours before the funeral for DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, began Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden made a surprise appearance at the church’s morning service to speak and worship.

Biden gave his condolences to the families of the victims and received a standing ovation after reading a selection of scripture.

The vice president’s son, Beau, died late last month of brain cancer. Beau Biden narrowly avoided death as a young boy in a 1972 car crash that killed Joe Biden’s first wife and his daughter.

“The reason I came was to draw strength from all of you,” Biden said. “I wish I could say something that would ease the pain.”

The funeral for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Emanuel AME’s pastor and a state senator, was held Friday at a basketball arena in Charleston with President Barack Obama delivering a eulogy.

The president spoke about the need to address issues like poverty, gun control and job discrimination before surprising many when he began singing “Amazing Grace.”

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

3 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

4 days ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

6 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke