Pre-dating the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings, the Orangeburg massacre was marked by the killing of three students by local policemen who fired into a crowd of people who were protesting segregation in 1968 at a bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
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In the days leading up to February 8, 1968, around 200 protesters had gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University (located in the city of Orangeburg) to protest the segregation of All Star Bowling Lane (now called All-Star Triangle Bowl), on US 301, now SC 33). The bowling alley was owned by the late Harry K. Floyd. Students continued their days of protesting by starting a bonfire. As police attempted to put out the fire, an officer was injured by a thrown piece of banister, according to an article in Nieman Reports at Harvard University[1] The police believed they were receiving small weapons fire during the incident. Protesters insist that they did not fire at police officers, but did hurl various objects (and insults) at the police. Evidence that police were being fired on was inconclusive, and there is no evidence that protesters were armed or had fired on officers. The officers responded by firing into the crowd, killing three young men, Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding 27 others. Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond were SCSU students; Delano Middleton, a local high school student, was seventeen. At a press conference the following day, Governor Robert E. McNair said the event was "one of the saddest days in the history of South Carolina." McNair also blamed the deaths on outside Black Power agitators, but subsequent investigations showed this to be untrue. At trial, billed as the first federal trial of police officers for using excessive force at a campus protest, all nine defendants were acquitted. Cleveland Sellers was the only person imprisoned as a result of the incident. He represented the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and convicted of inciting the riot that preceded the shootings. Sellers is now the director of the African-American Studies program at the University of South Carolina.
Media
Though this predated the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings, and was the first incident of its kind on an United States university campus, the Orangeburg Massacre received relatively little media coverage. Historian Jack Bass attributed the media discrepancy to the fact that the victims at Orangeburg were young black men protesting segregation, and that the victims at Kent State were young whites protesting an increasingly unpopular U.S. war in Vietnam.
Tributes
South Carolina State University's gymnasium is named in memory of the three men, and a memorial square was erected on campus in their honor. All-Star Triangle Bowl was integrated, and to this day the Floyd family has maintained ownership and operation of the business.
See also
Books
- Sellers, Cleveland L. (1998). "Orangeburg Massacre: Dealing honestly with tragedy and distortion." The Times and Democrat, January 24, 1998.
- The Orangeburg Massacre by Jack Bass and Jack Nelson. 248 pages. Mercer University Press. Second Edition 2003. ISBN 0-86554-552-9.
- Watters, Pat, and Weldon Rogeau (1968). Events at Orangeburg; a report based on study and interviews in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in the aftermath of tragedy. Southern Regional Council, Atlanta.
- Whitewash: A Southern Journey through Music, Mayhem and Murder by Frank Beacham. 188 pages. Booklocker. Second Edition 2007. ISBN 9781591131878.
References and external links
- Brian Cabell: Remembering the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre February 8 2001 Web posted at: 4:02 p.m. EST (2102 GMT). Accessed April 1 2005.
- Documenting the Orangburg Massacre PDF by Jack Bass. Neiman Reports. Harvard University. Fall 2003. Accessed May 21, 2007.
- The Orangeburg Massacre on About.com. Accessed April 1 2005.
- Remembering the Orangeburg Massacre by Linda Meggett Brown. Black Issues in Higher Education, March 1 2001. Accessed April 1 2005.
- On the Freedom Road A Guardian reporter visits the All-Star Triangle Bowl. Accessed May 21, 2007.
