Two months before the Rev. Clementa Pinckney was gunned down during a Bible study at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, he stood before state lawmakers seamlessly blending his faith and politics in urging them to pass a law to protect his community.
In this case, he was citing scripture in asking fellow South Carolina lawmakers to support equipping police with body cameras following the fatal police shooting of Walter Scott, a black man killed as he fled a traffic stop.
Pinckney's adeptness in persuading lawmakers to support the bill would be among the final political successes for the gifted pastor-politician, who was gunned down at age 41 along with eight others at his church, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal, on Wednesday night.