EOTO: Civil Rights Era

Today I am going to be teaching about the Orangeburg massacre. This was one of the most violent crimes in SC civil rights history and it all started with a group of college students protesting segregation. 

The lead up to this event began when local business owner, Harry Floyd, refused to integrate his bowling alley, even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. 

On February 5, 1968 a small group of SC State students went to the bowling alley to protest the white-only policy. They were refused entry and left peaceably. As news of this spread across the mostly African American campus of SC State, students rallied together.

The next night, on February 6, a larger group of students went to the bowling alley to protest. When they arrived, they were met by police and firefighters who were threatening to blast them with fire hoses. The students taunted back and began to throw rocks. When a window got broken, the police started beating the students with billy clubs. At the end of the night, 15 students were arrested and 11 were injured, one of which was a police officer.

After the two protests, tensions began to rise and Governor McNair called in the National Guard out of fear that looting and violence would break out. 

On February 8, hundreds of college students gathered alongside civil rights activist, Cleveland Sellers, to protest against the bowling alley and other businesses in the area. The National Guard and police force were called in, led by Chief Pete Strom. They worked to keep the protest on campus and avoid it turning into a riot.

The students started a large bonfire at the front of the campus and began to throw rocks at the police. As firefighters worked to put the fire out, a police officer got hit with a wooden banister. Claiming to have heard a gunshot, the police force opened fire into the darkness as the students scrambled to escape.

Three students were shot and killed that night. Sammy Hammond, who was a freshman at SC State, was shot in the back. 18 year old Henry Smith was shot 3 times. Delano Midleton, a 17 year old highschooler whose mom worked at the school, was shot 7 times. 28 others were injured. 

The incident was claimed to be incited by Cleveland Sellers and other black agitators in the area. Sellers was charged with incitement of a riot. Meanwhile, only 9 out of 70 police officers present at the massacre were charged with shooting at protestors and they were all acquitted. 

The incident was barely even covered in the press because of the Tet Offense in the Vietnam war, which happened at the same time and overshadowed the horrors seen in SC. Much of the coverage the event did get was falsified, with sources like the Associated Press, claiming the students were armed and fired first. This incident is even left out of many textbooks and Civil Rights era reports.

Lack of justice for these students broadened the racial divide in SC. 

The head of the NAACP traveled to SC to protest against the lack of coverage for the massacre. Likewise, the black community took to the streets of Columbia to protest for justice. Martin Luther King Jr. even sent a telegram to President Johnson saying that the deaths in Orangeburg county “lie on the conscience of Chief Strom and the government of South Carolina”. 

Everyone wanted justice for these students, but it was clear that no one was going to get it. It was not until 2003 that SC Governor Mark Sanford offered a written apology. 

Despite apologies, many residents believe the truth of the massacre is still suppressed to this day, and many from the community have vowed to continue to honor the victims and bring light to the injustice that occurred on that day in February of 1968.