Cynthia Graham Hurd was a 54-year-old librarian and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina. On the evening of June 17, 2015, she was attending a weekly Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she had been a lifelong member. A young white man entered the church armed with a .45-caliber handgun, sat with the congregants for nearly an hour, then opened fire. Cynthia and eight other people, all African American, were killed in the racially motivated attack; the victims included the church’s pastor and state senator, Clementa C. Pinckney.

The shooter was apprehended the next day in Shelby, North Carolina. Family, friends, and the wider Charleston community remember Cynthia for her dedication to service, literacy, and civic engagement. Her death remains a central loss in the community’s story of that night.