Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Celebration

Rev. Sharon Washington Risher

Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, 4 p.m., Richardson Chapel

Rev. Sharon Washington Risher was catapulted into the limelight after the shooting at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston  South Carolina, on June 17, 2015. Her beloved mother and the church’s sexton, EthelLee Lance, were killed along with eight others, including two cousins and a childhood friend.

Since that horrific tragedy, Washington Risher has been outspoken about the nation’s gun laws and a highly visible representative of the grassroots advocacy groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Gun Sense in America. She also wrote and published a book, For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness After the Charleston Massacre.

Join us as she shares how the church massacre and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have shaped her life.