People sign their names and leave messages of hope on a poster outside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Church (Getty Images)

The day after victims’ families forgave the suspect in the Charleston church shooting, a website has emerged that is apparently his racist manifesto. With numerous photographs of alleged killer Dylann Storm Roof, the approximately 2,400 word rant concludes, “I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country.”

Nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the oldest black churches in South Carolina and one of the country’s most historic, were fatally shot on Wednesday night. Roof is accused of attending bible study for an hour and then opening fire on the congregation, allegedly telling them, “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” He was charged with 9 counts of murder, and during a court hearing where he appeared via video conference, relatives of the slain addressed him.

Dylann Roof during his court hearing (Getty Images)

The daughter of 70-year-old victim Ethel Lance said, “I forgive you. You took something very precious from me and I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.” And the sister of Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor told him, “For me, I am a work in progress. And I acknowledge I am very angry. But one thing that she’s always joined in our family with is that she taught me that we are the families that love built. We have no room for hate so we have to forgive. I pray God on your soul and I also thank god that I will be around when your judgment day comes with him. May God bless you.”

A friend of Roof said that he was “big into segregation and other stuff. He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.” The Post and Courier reports, “The purported manifesto was found on a website called LastRhodesian.com and surfaced Saturday. It’s unclear if he wrote it but the writings are in line with what Roof has told friends and what he said before allegedly opening fire in the black church Wednesday night.”

Gawker notes, “There are two links on the front page of lastrhodesian.com: one is to a text file; the other is to a .zip folder, which contains numerous photographs of Roof. In several of these, he is seen to be wearing a jacket stitched with the flag of the white supremacist state of Rhodesia.”

The manifesto’s writer claims, “The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case. I kept hearing and seeing his name, and eventually I decided to look him up. I read the Wikipedia article and right away I was unable to understand what the big deal was. It was obvious that Zimmerman was in the right. But more importantly this prompted me to type in the words “black on White crime” into Google, and I have never been the same since that day.” The writer also gives views on various races and says of American patriotism, “I hate the sight of the American flag. Modern American patriotism is an absolute joke. People pretending like they have something to be proud while White people are being murdered daily in the streets.”

The conclusion on the website says:

I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.

Unfortunately at the time of writing I am in a great hurry and some of my best thoughts, actually many of them have been to be left out and lost forever. But I believe enough great White minds are out there already.

Please forgive any typos, I didnt have time to check it.

Authorities have said that Roof essentially confessed to the killings. According to NBC News’ sources, “Roof told police that he ‘almost didn’t go through with it because everyone was so nice to him’ … but he decided he had to “go through with his mission.'”

Outside the Emanuel AME Church (Getty Images)

Roof is also seen with the Confederate flag in photographs, and many critics are calling for the flag’s removal from South Carolina’s capitol. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney said today on Twitter, “Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims.” While Romney is not (yet) running for president again, the NY Times points out, “His unambiguous statement will immediately intensify pressure on Republicans seeking the White House in 2016 to confront the thorny issue, which has long divided the state and bedeviled national candidates campaigning in it. So far, none of the party’s 2016 presidential candidates has gone as far as Mr. Romney in demanding that the flag come down.”

South Carolina’s own Senator and 2016 candidate Lindsey Graham said, “We’re not going to give this a guy an excuse about a book he might have read or a movie he watched or a song he listened to or a symbol out anywhere. It’s him … not the flag,” and insisted, “The problems we’re having in South Carolina and around the world aren’t because of a symbol, but because of what’s in people’s hearts.”

But as Jon Stewart said on Thursday night, “In South Carolina, the roads that black people drive on are named for Confederate generals who fought to keep black people from being able to drive freely on that road. That’s insanity. That’s racial wallpaper. That’s—you can’t allow that. Nine people were shot in a black church by a white guy who hated them who wanted to start some kind of Civil War. The Confederate flag flies over South Carolina. And the roads are named for Confederate generals, and the white guy is the one who feels like his country is being taken away from him.”

Emanuel AME Church is going to reopen tomorrow.