‘Remembering Charleston’ in Riverhead with a somber gathering in Grangebel: ‘It has a name and that name is hate’

The gathering in Grangebel Park last night to remember the victims of the June 17 Charleston church massacre was small and somber.

“We must continue to fight hate and intolerance whenever and wherever we come across it,”

Angela DeVito of South Jamesport, who organized the “Remembering Charleston” candlelight vigil, told the 32 people gathered near the stage in the downtown park.

“We must rededicate ourselves and recommit our energies to ensuring that the promise, the hope, of civil rights movement and its ensuing legislation are not forgotten, but become a part of our daily lives every time we wake up and begin each day.”

The Rev. William Fields, pastor at the Goodwill AME Zion Church in Riverside, opened the vigil with reflections and prayer. Fields said the heart of the problem that causes such violence is sin.

“God told us sin has been the problem of the world all along — and it’s still sin,” the pastor said.

“Let this be a warning to us. America, America, God will get the glory. We have to stop sinning towards God, towards ourselves and towards humanity,” Fields said.

DeVito invited all in attendance to speak to the group. Shirley Coverdale of First Baptist Church in Riverhead was the first to speak out.

“It seems sad to me that in the times between these events nothing goes on and then it takes something horrific like this to mobilize and motivate people to come together, but all too briefly,” Coverdale said.

“Let us also remember that it is not just Charleston,” she continued, “since Charleston has happened there have been many churches that have been under attack,” she said, referring to three predominantly black churches in the South that have burned in the week since the massacre at Mother Emmanuel in Charleston. Two of them have been ruled arson; the third, which destroyed a church in Warrenville, South Carolina, took place Friday and is under investigation.

“Lest we think that Riverhead and eastern Long Island are exempt, I can tell you that I hear of hate crimes and things that are going on every day,” Coverdale said. “It’s not just ‘out there.’ It’s not just Charleston. It’s not in the distance. It’s here.”

Coverdale said her church’s efforts “to bring a community center and needed housing to Riverhead” have been stalled “because there are people who because of their narrow-mindedness do not want such a thing.

“They cannot see anything that brings people of all colors and genders and sexual orientations and mindsets together, to have dialogue and to recreate and to be nurtured and to be enriched. And so they fight and they flail against their own ignorance and misunderstanding,” Coverdale said.

Charleston, she said, is “a symbol of what is going on and percolating beneath the surface in our country. It has a name and that name is hate. It is sin indeed but it’s hate and it’s quite palpable, and it has been felt from the White House to, might I say, to the outhouse in every community across this country,” Coverdale said.

“So my challenge to this community is to start speaking up, to start speaking up and speaking out,” Coverdale said. “Because as Martin Luther King said, in the end it’s not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends that hurts the most.”

Joy Rankin, Riverhead Free Library director, stood up next and recalled the tremendous emotional impact of seeing the images of the people murdered inside the Charleston church.

“When I started seeing the faces…I saw my grandmother. I saw my aunt. I saw my grandfather. I have five children — my oldest is 24 —and I saw my son. That’s the moment when it hit me,” Rankin said.

The fact that one of the victims was a library manager hit home even more for Rankin and her colleagues in library services.

“The victims of hate crimes pay the ultimate price,” Rankin said, “but there are many crimes that really constitute hate. In housing, in the medical field, in day-to-day employment. I’m sure if the Charleston victims were still standing they could tell you stories of many things that felt like hate long before this happened.”

She asked, “What do we do here to make sure something like that never happens here, to make sure Riverhead is safe and free for everyone? It begins with dialogue.”

DeVito urged everyone to work to remove the symbols of hate and intolerance. “The confederate flag needs to be retired. It needs to go,” DeVito said.

“Engage yourself civically. Locally, get involved with our town’s reconstituted anti-bias task force.”

Before blowing out the flames of their candles and departing, the group sang a verse from “Amazing Grace” as dusk gathered around them.

“This was a start,” DeVito said afterward. “I wish there were more young people here tonight, because they are the generation that must carry on this work. That’s the generation we need to reach — in Riverhead and everywhere.”

DeVito said she was also disappointed that none of the Riverhead Town Board members attended the service. Supervisor Walter called to tell her he could not attend due to a family commitment, she said, but none of the other board members responded to the flyers she dropped off at their Town Hall offices last week.

“Riverhead needs leadership from Town Hall on this issue, because it is certainly an issue in Riverhead,” said DeVito, who was the Democratic candidate for town supervisor in 2013.