CHARLESTON, S.C. — The four Daughters of St. Paul who live and
work on Charleston's King Street closed up their books and media store like
normal May 30.
They had spent a long day serving customers and watching marchers
who moved down King Street to a city landmark called the Battery, taking part
in protests against the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of a
Minneapolis policeman.
Around 10 p.m., however, the sound of shouting alerted them that
it was not going to be a normal night.
"During the day, the people coming by were peaceful. They
chanted and marched and were very nice to our customers who were outside to
pick up orders," said Sister Margaret Kerry, local superior for the
community and store manager. "What we heard at night was different. There
was anger, screaming."
The Pauline sisters were about to have front-row seats to a riot
from their second-floor residence. They were safely ensconced above their
first-floor book and media store as they watched what was taking place below.
On a night when violence tore through cities across the U.S. as a
byproduct of the Floyd protests, Charleston was not immune. King Street and the
surrounding area, chock-full of popular restaurants and shops, became the
nucleus of a wave of looting, vandalism and arson. Rioters shattered windows,
set fires, and robbed stores of everything from iPhones to clothing, athletic
shoes and jewelry.
Sister Margaret said the people came not in one big group, but in
smaller, isolated clumps. Their ages ranged from teenagers to middle-aged
adults. They were not the same people who had marched earlier in the day.
Sister Charlotte Robert Morrison was in her room on the
building's second floor when she heard the yelling, then the sound of glass
breaking. Being in the middle of a riot had been the last thing on her mind
when she arrived in Charleston in January to spend a few months helping at the
store. She is usually based in Toronto and ended up staying in South Carolina
longer than intended because COVID-19 halted travel between Canada and the U.S.
Sister Charlotte went downstairs into the store, where she joined
Sisters Lupe Hernandez and Gioan Linh Nguyen, who had come downstairs to see
what was happening.
Then the looting started. Rioters hit the Sunglass Hut directly
across the street but could only damage that glass and not break it. So they
moved on to other shops up and down King Street, then started breaking
restaurant windows. Sister Charlotte said people shattered the windows of Rack
Room Shoes across from the Pauline store and within minutes shoe boxes were
scattered in the street.
While most of the people were on foot, Sisters Charlotte and
Gioan noted that some cars picked up looters with their arms full of
merchandise, while other cars dropped people off.
The sisters stayed downstairs for a while, hoping no one would
target their store. Miraculously, no one did.
In the meantime, they did what they could to document the
situation. Sister Gioan saw people trying to take pictures of the sisters
through the store windows. So, she and the other sisters took pictures of the
people doing the rioting. They also wrote down the license plates of some of
the looters' cars and later shared them with police.
The chaos continued until about 2 a.m., then finally tapered off.
The morning of May 31, the sisters saw the destruction up and
down King Street and realized how blessed they were to have escaped the night
undamaged. Their hearts were heavy, however, to see what happened to neighbors
whose businesses were just starting to recover after being closed because of
the pandemic.
"I usually walk very early in the morning, and after this it
was very discouraging just to walk down King Street and see what happened to
all of our neighbors' livelihoods," Sister Gioan told The Catholic Miscellany, newspaper of the Diocese of
Charleston. "People work hard for what they have and this is what happens.
All we can really do is pray for a healing of people's hearts."
They also saw the neighborhood come together. Volunteers showed
up to help sweep up glass. Employees from Croghan's, a jewelry store across the
street, took time off from their own cleanup to help the sisters put plywood
over their door and windows to protect them in case of another wave of
violence.
Sister Margaret is heartbroken for one woman who had just moved
her jewelry store to King Street and had her entire inventory stolen. She also
learned June 1 that a nearby restaurant that was set on fire will not reopen.
"This had nothing to do with Charleston and who we are and
how we have acted in the past," she said. "This violence was the
opposite of what we stand for. We all know there has to be police reform,
prison reform and justice reform, but this violence had nothing to do with any
of those issues."
The sisters are thankful that they are safe, and their store was
not harmed. The Daughters of St. Paul, who operate a bookstore on Michigan
Avenue in Chicago, were not as lucky. Rioters broke nearly all of the windows
in the sisters' store and emptied their cash register. Interestingly, Sister
Margaret said, the only window that wasn't smashed at the Chicago store was one
that held a picture of Pope Francis.
Knauss is a reporter at The Catholic Miscellany,
newspaper of the Diocese of Charleston.
Updated June 5