Life-Sized Memorial Preview Installed at Emanuel Nine Memorial Site

Artist Rendering provided courtesy of Handel Architects

The Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation Board, which manages the fundraising, construction, endowment and outreach for the Emanuel Nine Memorial, announced this week that a preview section of the memorial’s Fellowship Benches was installed on Church grounds on June 21st. The memorial is currently on schedule for a groundbreaking this summer with an anticipated completion in winter 2025.  

The Emanuel Nine Memorial preview was installed on the southeast side of the Church’s Calhoun Street entrance and features a section of a Fellowship Bench planned for the Memorial Courtyard, along with informational signage describing the project. The preview, constructed of Vermont Danby Pearl marble, exceeds nine feet in height and will remain in place until Phase I of the memorial’s construction is completed.

The Emanuel Nine Memorial will honor the nine victims and five survivors of the June 17, 2015 tragedy, one of the largest racially motivated mass murders in recent American history. Phase I of the memorial will be located adjacent to the Mother Emanuel AME Church and will feature a courtyard with two fellowship benches facing each other with high backs that arc up and around like sheltering wings. At the center of the courtyard, the curves of the benches will encircle a marble fountain where the names of the Emanuel Nine are carved around the fountain’s edge. Water will emanate from a cross-shaped source, filling the basin and gently spilling over the names of the nine lives lost. The opening between the benches toward the back of the courtyard will reveal a cross above a simple altar, providing visitors a quiet place to linger in thought and prayer.

“This week’s temporary preview installation is a milestone in the design and construction of the Emanuel Nine Memorial,” said memorial architect Michael Arad. “We are thrilled to see it go up in front of the Church and hope that it will help communicate the scale, materiality and detail of the design of the fellowship benches that are at the heart of the memorial’s design.”

Phase II of the memorial project will include a survivors’ garden, which will be accessed by a pathway from the courtyard. Dedicated to life and resiliency, the garden will be surrounded by six stone benches and five trees, symbolizing the five survivors – the sixth signifying the church is also a survivor.

“The Emanuel Nine Memorial is a monumental landmark that will permanently tribute those unjustly taken from us in a hate crime. It will symbolize remembrance and hope that we can overcome tragedy and dedicate our efforts to ensuring that future generations live in a peaceful and nurturing world,” said Rev. Eric S.C. Manning, pastor of the Mother Emanuel AME Church and co-chair of the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation.

The Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation relies on individual and corporate contributions that can be made online by visiting: www.emanuelnine.org/donate.

Artist Rendering provided courtesy of Handel Architects

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