Mark Zuckerberg visits S.C. as part of tour to meet more Americans
GREENVILLE, S.C. — As part of his pledge to meet more Americans, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg traveled to South Carolina on Sunday where he met with students and visited the site of the Charleston church shooting.
In January, Zuckerberg said his personal challenge for this year is to have visited and met people in every state by the end of the year. That means he will travel to about 30 states in 2017, according to a Facebook post at the time.
Zuckerberg's visit to the S.C. Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, S.C., came as a surprise to students. They were told that a VIP would visit.
Zuckerberg spent about two hours at the school where he saw a dance performance, toured the residential arts campus nestled along the banks of the Reedy River and spoke with students about their dreams for the future.
"He asked them about their experiences here, what it's like to live in South Carolina, what he should do or see or eat before he leaves," said Christina Vandiver, spokeswoman for Governor's School.
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"They talked about diversity and where that's going in the state," she said. "And he asked them about their plans for the future. They covered a good bit of ground."
Earlier in the day, Zuckerberg visited Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of the 2015 shooting in which nine black parishioners were killed.
Vandiver said Zuckerberg "wants to spend a little time in each state that he hasn't been to before."
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the rest of the country can learn a lot from Mother Emanuel and the community around it.
"The Mother Emanuel community, with a tradition of fighting injustice, led the city in setting a tone of calm for the whole nation."
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He added that during dinner with Charleston leaders, "They told me one reason the community got through this is they've been building strong bonds for years. The mayor said that you can't wait until a crisis to build community; you need strong community in place when a crisis hits."
Zuckerberg said he heard about some of the flaws in the city, but said overall, the city has been a success about building a stronger community.
"I hope more communities lift up their eyes to see what you have built. It will help them when their hearts are heavy, and it will help us all build stronger communities around the world," he wrote on Facebook
The trip to the Governor's School was made possible because the son of the school's director of guidance services is a top executive at Facebook, Vandiver said.
She said Zuckerberg's next stop was in North Carolina.
Contributing: WLTX-TV, Columbia, S.C.; Jessica Guynn , Paste BN. Follow Paul Hyde on Twitter: @PaulHyde