Voices of Support After the Charleston Shooting

Although atrocities such as the June 17 massacre of nine people in a historic Charleston, South Carolina, church shake us to our core, it gives us hope to see people coming together online, offering support and sympathy.

Tragedies are by nature difficult to comprehend. Perhaps that’s why people feel such a need to reach out to one another in their aftermath, offering comfort and working toward some semblance of understanding. Although atrocities such as the June 17 massacre of nine people in a historic Charleston, South Carolina, church shake us to our core, it gives us hope to see people coming together online, offering support and sympathy.

In the days since the shooting, we’ve been moved by the hundreds of messages posted in the victims’ Guest Books. Below, we’ve shared a handful of these messages. Some come from friends and family of the victims, others from total strangers, but all voice sadness for the people who died and support for the friends and loved ones left behind.