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Was Charleston church singled out for its history of resisting white oppression? Prof Tim Lockley

Professor Tim Lockley is an American Historian who specialises in US race relations. Reacting to the killings in South Carolina overnight he said: “The shootings at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston by a young white man are the latest in a long list of racially motivated crimes in the US.

“It is possible that this church might have been singled out as a focus for the black community and one with a particular history of resisting white oppression.

“Independent black churches were very popular among slaves in the early nineteenth century, often focussing on the Old Testament story of Moses leading the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt.

“In 1822 members of this very church plotted a slave rebellion against their masters. The plot was uncovered before it was put into operation and at the subsequent trials of more than 100 plotters, 35 slaves were executed and 32 banished. The church itself was burned to the ground and members forced to worship in secret until after the Civil War.”

Prof Lockley is available for interviews. We have in-house broadcasting facilities for TV and radio. We have an ISDN line for radio and a remote camera (Globelynx TV Ready Network) for television interviews.

Contact Lee Page, Communications Manager at The University of Warwick. Tel: +44 (0)2476 574 255. Mob: +44 (0)7920 531 221. Email: l.page@warwick.ac.uk.

Contact:

Lee Page

Communications Manager, University of Warwick

Tel: +44 (0)2476 574 255

Mob: +44 (0)7920 531 221

Email: l.page@warwick.ac.uk