President Obama will spend the day in Charleston, South Carolina, delivering the eulogy at the funeral of one of the victims of last week's shooting spree.
It will be the President's first visit to the city since the attack on the AME Church.
A 21 year old white supremacist, Dylan Roof, has been charged with 9 murders and is expected to face additional hate crime charges soon.
Our US Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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For President Obama, today's journey to Charleston will be solemn, but not solitary.
He'll be joined at the funeral of the Reverend Clementa Pinckney by First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill.
They all knew the pastor who was gunned down, along with 8 other people during a bible study class last Wednesday.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest says this will be an intensely personal day for the President.
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Hundreds of people spent Thursday lining up to pay their respects to Reverend Pinckney as his body lay in state in South Carolina's capitol building.
Among them Steve Benjamin, the mayor of the city of Columbia.
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It's unclear to what extent President Obama will repeat the call he made last week for the country to come to grips with its epidemic of gun violence.
He's ruled out any fresh attempts at legislation to curb their availability, citing the fervent opposition of Republicans to the idea.
They continue to blame the alleged gunman - 21 year Dylan Roof…not his weapon.
Here's Republican leader John Boehner explaining why he's blocking the Centers for Disease Control the CDC, from researching the public health impact of firearms' availability.
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And so there will be more tears today in South Carolina….more tributes paid to the lives lost last week.
And, in the back of everyone's mind the certainty that before long there will be another shooting, somewhere else in America that causes similar amounts of grief and pain.
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