Like many places around the country, the Pittsfield community is gathering to remember the victims of the Charleston church shooting.The Berkshire County chapter of the NAACP, Multicultural Bridge and members of the area African American festival known as Lift Ev’ry Voice are inviting the public to a vigil Monday night honoring the nine victims in the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last week. Roberta McCulloch-Dews works with both the NAACP and Lift Ev’ry Voice.
“We can’t allow fear or hate to envelope us or paralyze us from moving forward,” McCulloch-Dews said. “Because then that person wins. His actions win and we can’t allow that.”
Twenty-one year old Dylann Roof has been charged in the shooting, which is being investigated as a hate crime. The vigil starts at 7 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church at 55 Fenn St. in Pittsfield.