Thank you for listening to and sharing our body politic.

We're so excited to have you on this journey with us.

After you listen today, please consider going to Apple Podcast and leaving us a review.

We read those because your ideas matter to us.

Thanks so much.

Thank you. Welcome to Our Body Politic. I'm the creator and host, Farai Chidea. In today's show, we continue our coverage of extremism in the U.S.

Last month, the families of the nine people killed in the mass shooting in 2015 at

Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, reached an $88 million settlement with the

Department of Justice.

Families and survivors said the federal background check system failed to prevent

Dylan Roof from buying a gun

used in the murders. Roof was convicted of federal hate crimes and sentenced to death in 2017,

and his sentence was upheld this summer in an appeals court. Sharon Risher has been a vocal

advocate for the families of the victims. Her mother, two cousins and a childhood friend were among those killed.

She worked as a hospital chaplain and a minister in Texas and a spokesperson for gun reform

and for ending the federal death penalty. Reverend Risher, welcome to Our Body Politics.

Thank you for having me. Thank you.

First of all, I just want to say I am so sorry for the loss of your mother and that other members of your extended family were involved, you know, as victims of this massacre.

And I've been lucky enough to visit Mother Emanuel and seen the strength of the congregation

after the massacre during the 2016 South Carolina primary. And I was so struck by this video

you did with The New Yorker. In it, you said, my mother left a legacy in spite of the storms that she

had endured in her life. So why don't we start with you telling me what your mother was like

...