Charleston Church Shooting: White Gunman Kills 9 At Historic Black Church Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church
These are the victims that lost their lives in the #CharlestonShooting
Six women and three men were killed.
The church’s pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney
Tywanza Sanders
Cynthia Hurd
Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
Myra Thompson
Ethel Lance
Rev. Daniel Simmons
Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor
Susie Jackson
“The only reason someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate,” said Charleston Mayor Joe Riley at a news conference. “It is the most dastardly act that one could possibly imagine.”
“Unforgotten” Exhibit Brings Faceless Victims of Chicago Gun Violence to Life
The traveling art exhibit was commissioned by the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.
Blair Holt, a 16-year-old honor student, was killed by a teenage gunman in 2007 when Holt was riding to his grandparents’ store after school.
Now in 2015, a life-like sculpture of Holt — without a face — stands in a plaza at the corner of Huron and Rush Streets as a reminder of the toll gun violence has taken on the Chicago area.
The sculpture is part of a public art exhibit called “Unforgotten” headed by the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. Holt is one of eight victims of gun violence memorialized in the exhibit.
Among the others represented are 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, an honor student killed while sitting in a park after school days after attending President Obama’s second inauguration; 19-year-old Ryanne Mace, who was killed by a suicidal gunman in a classroom at Northern Illinois University; and 18-year-old Terrell Bosley, who was killed in a church parking lot before the start of choir practice.
Sculptures of Jitka Vesell, Hadiya Pendleton and Blair Holt stand in the plaza at the intersection Rush and Huron Streets as part of the public art exhibit “Unforgotten.”
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The sculptures, which are made out of plaster and wire mesh, are dressed in the victims’ real clothes, and the dimensions of the sculptures mirror their actual height and weight.
From behind, it appears they are real people. A view from the front, however, shows a faceless person with a hood partially concealing the empty space where his or her face would be.
The purpose of the art exhibit is to raise awareness of gun violence in Chicago as well as throughout the state of Illinois. The sculptures currently reside in the plaza at Huron and Rush, but they will travel across the state in the coming weeks.
Unforgotten is a traveling exhibit that features arresting memorial statues that represent actual victims of gun violence. Working with victim families, we created lifelike statues of the victims in their actual clothing.
Shocking? Yes.
But each statue is an emotional and powerful reminder of the senseless loss of life due to gun violence. This documentary video shares the personal stories behind the victims and the emotional reactions of those who experienced this first exhibit.
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.
The divisive war, increasingly unpopular at home, ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973 and the unification of Vietnam under Communist control two years later. More than 3 million people, including 58,272 Americans, were killed in the conflict.
It Is What It Is 