Malcolm Graham

The longtime public official and businessman assesses his life, and the nation’s, two years after his sister’s murder in a Charleston church

- Greg Lacour

ON JUNE 17, 2015, a 21-year-old white supremacist named Dylann Roof shot and killed nine black people during Bible study at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was a tragedy and shock for the nation and a personal horror for Charlottean Malcolm Graham, a Charleston native, former Charlotte City Council member, and former N.C. Senator. His older sister, Cynthia Graham Hurd, was one of the victims.

The past two years have passed in a blur of grief and activity for Graham. He made arrangements for his sister’s funeral. He’s accepted numerous speaking engagements in the Carolinas and elsewhere to talk about Cynthia’s legacy and the corrosive effects of racial hatred. He’s also formed a foundation in Cynthia’s name, the Cynthia Graham Hurd Foundation for Literacy & Civic Engagement, to promote literacy and reading nationwide, especially among poor children; Hurd was a longtime librarian and branch manager in the Charleston County Public Library System. While running his own business consultancy, the Center for Supplier Diversity, which helps minority business owners and major corporations do business with one another, Graham also found time to run a Congressional campaign, although he lost in the Democratic primary last year to eventual general election winner Alma Adams. In December, he attended Roof’s federal trial in Charleston, which ended with Roof’s conviction and death sentence.

Graham, 53, spoke with Charlotte magazine in March about his continued struggle to understand the Charleston massacre and Cynthia’s murder in the context of the recent presidential campaign and Graham’s own experience in public office.

Here he is, in his own words (edited for clarity and space).