Felicia Sanders (right) speaks at Tina Brown's Women in the World Summit. Photo by Michael Loccisano via Getty Images
Charleston Church Survivor Wants Black & White People To 'Get To Know One Another'
Felicia Sanders (right) speaks at Tina Brown's Women in the World Summit. Photo by Michael Loccisano via Getty Images
A survivor of the Charleston church shooting where white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine black worshippers, recently spoke out about the experience.
Felicia Sanders was a speaker at this year's Tina Brown's Women in the World summit, where she used the appearance to discuss the incident as well as make a plea for solidarity and understanding between black and white people.
Sanders, who was in attendance with her son Tywanza Sanders and aunt Susie Jackson at South Carolina's Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church for Bible study, said how she mistook Roof for a "child coming in to study the Bible."
Once the shooting began Sanders hid under a table with her granddaughter, where she heard Tywanza speaking with Roof about why he was going through with this attack.
She said she heard Roof say "he had to, because [black Americans] are raping white women and taking over the world."
Following that Sanders addressed the audience directly, saying "I look around this audience and I see so many Caucasians in here. And we really don't mean you harm. We really do not mean you harm. The problem is that we don't take time to know each other."
"If he took ten more minutes, maybe twenty more minutes to get to know each one of the people that he killed, he would have had some really great friends," Sanders added.
Roof recently plead guilty to state murder charges. He was initially sentenced to death for the murder of nine black worshippers at Emanuel AME Church, after being convicted of 33 federal charges in January.
However, now that Roof has pleaded guilty he will receive a life sentence.
At his plea hearing Roof will be able to address the judge if he chooses. Loved ones of the people he killed will have that opportunity as well.
Following that Roof will likely be transferred from the Charleston County detention center to a federal Bureau of Prisons facility.
Watch the video with Sanders below.