Residents of Charleston continue to seek healing late last night as musicians shook tambourines, the choirs bellowed mournful tunes and the South Carolina jazz legend George Kinney played the famous “My Buddy” in honor of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney and the rest of the Emmanuel Nine who were fatally shot after Bible study in a church basement according to the Washingtonpost.

Rev. William Swinton Jr. told a gathered crowd for a benefits concert at Ebenezer AME Church, “Our seed is more powerful than a bullet.” The funds that were donated were going to be used as a scholarship to help students fight racism and all evil things of society through education.

The Rev. Melanie Conner of the Charleston NAACP told the crowd that she knew many of the people who were murdered at the Emmanuel AME Church during a racially motivated massacre in the fellowship hall Wednesday night.

“There living and dying will not be in vain. What man meant for evil, God turned it around.” She said.

The suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, told Charleston Police that he wanted to start a race war.

Trudy B. Lucas from the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network encouraged the crowd to join a movement to take down a Confederate flag that flies at the state capital. She stated that they were in negotiations and that the talks to rally at the Statehouse.

Thousands of people gathered across town in Mount Pleasant to make the long journey across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge leading to Charleston for a “Bridge to Peace” walk. Chants of USA! USA! and “ Charleston Strong” broke out along the way. American flags waved and helicopters circled over the crowds as they marched across the bridge’s pedestrian walkway.

For A.J Glover, 40, an African American whose family has lived in nearby Summerville for generations, this moment is one that he hopes is historic.

“I really felt the need to be here,” he said. “We have all this talk about the flag and racism and the state’s history……I think if we all come together as one people, we can get through all that.”