Orangeburg massacre

The Orangeburg massacre^[1] was an incident on February 8, 1968 in which local policemen in Orangeburg, South Carolina fired into a crowd of young people who were protesting local segregation at a bowling alley. They killed three and injured twenty-eight^[2], hitting most of them in their backs. After the shooting stopped, two others were injured by police in the aftermath and one, a pregnant woman, later had a miscarriage due to the beating, which brought the total up to 4 dead and 31 injured (although most only list 3 dead and 27 injured). The incident pre-dated the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings.

About

In the days leading up to February 8, 1968, about 200 mostly student protesters gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University (located in the city of Orangeburg) to protest the segregation of the 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. That night, students started a bonfire. As police attempted to put out the fire, an officer was injured by a thrown piece of banister.^[3]

The police said they believed they were under attack by small weapons fire. Protesters insisted 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. There was no evidence that protesters were armed or had fired on officers.

The officers fired into the crowd, killing three young men: Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding twenty-seven others. Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond were SCSU students; Delano Middleton, a local high school student, was seventeen. Hammond had wanted to become a teacher and Smith, who was known as "smitty" on campus, mentioned in a college questionnaire that his life goals were simply "happiness and success."

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 blamed the deaths on outside Black Power agitators, but subsequent investigations showed this allegation to be without basis and untrue.

At the trial, the first federal trial of police officers for using excessive force at a campus protest, all nine defendants were acquitted. The activist Cleveland Sellers was the only person convicted and imprisoned as a result of the incident. He represented the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was convicted of having incited the riot that preceded the shootings. In 1973 he wrote The River of No Return: The Autobiography of a Black Militant and the Life and Death of SNCC in 1973. Twenty-five years later, Sellers was officially pardoned.

After prison, Sellers earned a master's in education from Harvard University and later a doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He became director of the African-American Studies program at the University of South Carolina. In 2008 he was selected as president of Voorhees College in South Carolina.

List of Those Involved

Perpetrators

• Patrol Lieutenant Jesse Alfred Spell, 45
• Sgt. Henry Morrell Addy, 37
• Sgt. Sidney C. Taylor, 43
• Corporal Joseph Howard Lanier, 32
• Corporal Norwood F. Bellamy, 50
• Patrolman First Class John William Brown, 31
• Patrolman First Class Colie Merle Metts, 36
• Patrolman Allen Jerome Russell, 24
• Patrolman Edward H. Moore, 30
• Cleveland Sellers, 23 - Was arrested and convicted of starting the riot but was later pardoned.

Killed

• Samuel Hammond Jr., 18
• Delano Herman Middleton, 17
• Henry Ezekial Smith, 19
• unborn child of Louise Kelly Cawley - Louise's beating by police while trying to help those injured get to the hospital caused her to miscarry.

Injured

• Patrolman David Shealy - His being injured is what lead the police to start firing.
• Herman Boller Jr., 19
• Johnny Bookhart, 19
• Thompson Braddy, 20
• Bobby K. Burton, 22
• Ernest Raymond Carson, 17
• Robert Lee Davis Jr., 19
• Albert Dawson, 18
• Bobby Eaddy, 17
• Herbert Gadson, 19
• Samuel Grant, 19
• Samuel Grate, 19
• Joseph Hampton, 21
• Charles W. Hildebrand, 19
• Nathaniel Jenkins, 21
• Thomas Kennerly, 21
• Joseph Lambright, 21
• Richard McPherson, 19
• Harvey Lee Miller, 15
• Harold Riley, 20
• Cleveland Sellers, 23
• Ernest Shuler, 16
• Jordan Simmons III, 21
• Ronald Smith, 19
• Frankie Thomas, 18
• Robert Watson, 19
• Robert Lee Williams, 19
• Savannah Williams, 19
• John Carson - Was beaten by highway patrol after he started questioning their involvement.
• Louise Kelly Cawley, 27 - Was beaten and sprayed in the face with a chemical by policemen while trying to take the injured to the hospital. The beating was so severe that she had a miscarriage a week later.
• John H. Elliot - Was added to the list of those injured in the shooting on the 40th anniversary. Elliot said he was shot in the stomach the night of the massacre but did not go to the hospital for treatment.

Media coverage

The shootings at Orangeburg predated the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings. This was the first incident of its kind on a United States university campus. The Orangeburg Massacre received relatively little media coverage.

Historian Jack Bass attributed the discrepancy in media coverage, compared to that for later events, to the fact that the victims at Orangeburg were young black men protesting local segregation.^{[citation needed]} In addition, the shootings at Orangeburg happened at night, when media coverage was less. At Kent State, in contrast, the victims were young whites protesting an increasingly unpopular and highly politicized U.S. war in Vietnam. They were attacked by members of the National Guard, which the media may have judged a more inflammatory aspect of the shootings. Other analysts have noted that later events in 1968, such as the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and candidate Robert Kennedy,as well as the Tet Offensive overshadowed the events at Orangeburg.^[4].

Tributes

South Carolina State University's gymnasium is named in memory of the three men. A monument was erected on campus in their honor and the site has been marked. All-Star Triangle Bowl was integrated. The Floyd family has maintained ownership and operation of the business.

In 2001 Governor Hodges was the first governor to attend the university's annual memorial of the event. That same year, on the 33rd anniversary of the killings, eight survivors told their stories at a memorial service. Robert Lee Davis told an interviewer,

"One thing I can say is that I'm glad you all are letting us do the talking, the ones that were actually involved, instead of outsiders that weren't there, to tell you exactly what happened."

^{[citation needed]}

The state general assembly recently passed a resolution recommending that February 8 be a day of remembrance for the students killed and wounded in the protest.

See also

• Kent State shootings
• Jackson State killings
• Protests of 1968
• Greensboro massacre

References

Books and articles

• 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.
• Frank Beacham, Whitewash: A Southern Journey through Music, Mayhem and Murder, Booklocker. Second Edition 2007. ISBN 978-1-59113-187-8.

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.
• Jack Bass, "Documenting the Orangeburg Massacre", Neiman Reports. Harvard University. Fall 2003. Accessed May 21, 2007.
• Linda Meggett Brown, "Remembering the Orangeburg Massacre", 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", The Guardian, Accessed May 21, 2007.

Video

• 1968, "Forty Years Later: A Look Back at the Orangeburg Massacre", Democracy Now!', 2008, Accessed April 3, 2008.

• "Scarred Justice: the Orangeburg Massacre 1968, a documentary distributed by California Newsreel.