Donors Give $3M to Scholarship Fund After Charleston Shooting

Anonymous donors have given $3 million to a scholarship fund for members of the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church community after a massacre at the historic house of worship left nine dead.

The money has been donated to the Reverend Pinckney Scholarship Fund, named in honor of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims in the Charleston, SC tragedy. The fund will provide college and advanced degree scholarships for the historical church's extended community, including the families of the victims.

"We do not pretend to understand the pain caused by this unimaginable tragedy," the anonymous donors said in a statement. "We simply want members of the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church community to know that the burdens of perseverance and empathy, which they have demonstrated with such dignity, do not fall exclusively on their shoulders."

"We want them to know that others, most of whom do not share their race or religion, who do not come from South Carolina, abhor the injustices from which they have suffered and admire the ways the African-American community has enriched our nation," the donors added. "We honor Reverend Pinckney who so profoundly embodied the values that bind us together as Americans."

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. said the generosity of the donors "touched us all" and that "the grace and courage of this church and its members is a light in the darkness of this tragedy."

Emanuel AME's interim pastor said the scholarship fund was appropriate because Rev. Pinckney highly valued education.

"The loss of Rev. Pinckney and the death of the faithful eight who perished with him cuts deep, but through this educational fund, Rev. Pinckney's already rich legacy will rippleacross time, promoting the values of learning and public service he so nobly embodied in word and in sterling deed," said Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the fund's board members.