Charleston, 2015: Dylann Roof and Emanuel AME

At a 2024 House Judiciary oversight hearing, an exchange about racially motivated violence goes viral after FBI chief Kash Patel appears to stumble over a question about the 2015 Charleston church massacre. The moment sparks a grim question: how does a tragedy this defining slip out of view? Jed Lipinski revisits what happened at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church when 21-year-old Dylann Roof sat in on Bible study, then opened fire and killed nine Black parishioners. With New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb and Charleston native Jack Hitt, we trace the deeper history Roof targeted: Denmark Vesey, the long shadow of Confederate “heritage,” and the symbols that still shape South Carolina’s public life. From the Confederate flag’s removal to today’s backlash, this is a story about memory, denial, and what the country chooses to learn, or forget.

You can listen to Charleston, 2015: Dylann Roof and Emanuel AME online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Charleston, 2015: Dylann Roof and Emanuel AME is an episode from Gone South by Audacy Podcasts.

This episode is 36:48 long.

This episode was published on Mar 4, 2026.

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