This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Michael Arad, the Israeli architect who designed the 9/11 memorial in New York, has been chosen to create a memorial to the nine worshippers who died in a racist shooting at a Charleston church in June 2015.

9/11 Memorial Museum: an emotional underworld beneath Ground Zero Read more

The planners of the memorial announced their choice on Saturday, the second anniversary of the massacre at Emanuel AME church.

Pastor the Rev Eric Manning said the memorial on church grounds would be a reminder of the resiliency of the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the south.

Dylann Roof sat through 45 minutes of Bible study at the church on 17 June 2015 before shooting the first of more than 70 shots. He has been sentenced to death.

After pictures were found of Roof posing with a Confederate battle flag, momentum grew for the removal of the flag from official buildings, beginning at the South Carolina state capitol in Charleston the following month.

Such moves have included the removal of monuments to the Confederacy and white supremacy in New Orleans and the consideration of similar moves in other cities, including Baltimore.

Arad’s 9/11 memorial proved controversial before and during its construction on the site of the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan, but has now become a much-visited tourist site.