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155-489: The Orangeburg Massacre was a shooting of student protesters that took place on February 8, 1968, on the campus of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, South Carolina , United States. Nine highway patrolmen and one city police officer opened fire on a crowd of African American students, killing three and injuring twenty-eight. The shootings were the culmination of a series of protests against racial segregation at

310-707: A COFO conference in New York, Bob Moses had to see off two challenges to SNCC's future role in Mississippi. First, he had to defend the SNCC's anti-" Red-baiting " insistence on "free association": the NAACP had threatened to pull out of COFO if SNCC continued to engage the services of the Communist Party associated National Lawyers Guild . Second, he had deflect a proposal from Lowenstein and Democratic Party operative Barney Frank that in

465-611: A SNCC community organizer. Most victims sustained injuries from behind while fleeing or on the soles of the feet while lying on the ground. The most serious non-fatal wounds included those to Bobby Burton, whose left arm was paralyzed, and to Ernest Raymond Carson, who was hit by eight buckshot slugs. Three of those injured would later die of their wounds at the Orangeburg Regional Hospital : Samuel Ephesians Hammond, Delano Herman Middleton, and Henry Ezekial Smith. Smith and Hammond were both State College students, while Middleton

620-627: A boycott of all of Orangeburg's white businesses starting on February 11. On March 7, BACC organized a protest of 200 Orangeburg students at the South Carolina State House . A group led by Steve Moore attempted to read a petition to the South Carolina Senate from the gallery, but was stopped and six students were arrested. On March 13, BACC led a second protest of 1000 students to Columbia and were met by police in riot gear. After some resistance, McNair eventually agreed to meet with

775-510: A chapter of the NAACP . The NAACP chapter took a moderate stance on civil rights and had over 300 members. The BACC was much smaller—its membership hovered around twenty students—and represented students who embraced black pride and were interested in black power . To the white community and the black middle class, the creation of the BACC was ominous. They associated black power with the radical rhetoric of

930-604: A church burning in June 1964, they were subjects of a massive manhunt that involved the FBI and United States sailors from a nearby base. In the course of the search the corpses of several black Mississippians were uncovered whose disappearances had not previously attracted attention outside the Delta. Notwithstanding the national outrage generated by the murders, the Johnson Administration

1085-402: A civil rights museum that includes a collection of photographs he took of the days before and after the shooting. It is South Carolina's first—and as of August 2022, only—civil rights museum. 33°29′43″N 80°51′17″W  /  33.4952°N 80.8547°W  / 33.4952; -80.8547 South Carolina State University South Carolina State University ( SCSU or SC State )

1240-789: A coalition, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), with, among other groups, the NAACP and the National Council of Churches. With VEP and COFO funding SNCC was able to expand its voter registration efforts into the Mississippi Delta around Greenwood , Southwest Georgia around Albany , and the Alabama Black Belt around Selma . All of these projects endured police harassment and arrests; KKK violence including shootings, bombings, and assassinations; and economic sanctions against those blacks who dared to try to register. Although it

1395-409: A corrupted constitution-defiant police and judicial system—while at the same time saving the movement money it did not have. As way to "dramatize that the church, the house of all people, fosters segregation more than any other institution," SNCC students also participated in "kneel-ins"—kneeling in prayer outside of Whites-only churches. Presbyterians churches, targeted because their "ministers lacked

1550-457: A crime...The S.C. attorney did not want to proceed with a trial, because there was not any evidence, but Governor McNair insisted that the state go forward. All of the original charges were dropped, and in two of the three Riot Act charges the judge ruled a " directed verdict " because of the lack of evidence. All of the people who testified against me were white law enforcement officers. In the only testimony of evidence that could be used to secure

1705-558: A delegation of students. On February 10, the Department of Justice filed a suit against Harry Floyd (who insisted that he had a right to refuse business to black patrons). The department also filed against the Orangeburg Regional Hospital, which remained segregated despite having promised to integrate in 1965. On February 22, federal Judge Robert Martin ordered All-Star Bowling Lane to desegregate. John Stroman became one of

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1860-441: A few used carbines and one fired a pistol. After expending several rounds, Lieutenant Spell gave the order to cease fire. Thirty-one victims are known to have been hit by police fire. The victims' ages ranged between 15 and 23. They included seven students from Claflin, nineteen from State College, and three from Wilkinson High School. Two others were not students: Joseph Hampton, a recent State College graduate and Cleveland Sellers,

2015-528: A fine and one year in prison. He served seven months, getting time off for good behavior. In 1993, Sellers applied for and was granted a full pardon from the South Carolina Board of Paroles and Pardons . During a conference at The Citadel on the 35th anniversary of massacre, Sellers shared his perspective on the trial and its significance: I was the only person arrested. The only person tried. The only person found guilty and sentenced. I did not commit

2170-408: A form of crowd control and had a reputation for brutality. Chief Poston was unaware of this and had called the truck as backup. The students interpreted the move as an act of aggression, and they began to shout insults at the firefighters. The police moved away from the alley to protect the fire truck from the students. A student then broke one of the alley's windows. The police arrested the suspect, but

2325-538: A future summer program decision-making be removed from organizers in the field to a new office in New York City responsible directly to liberal-foundation and church funders. Dorothy Zellner (a white radical SNCC staffer) remarked that, "What they [Lowenstein and Frank] want is to let the Negro into the existing society, not to change it." At the end of 1964, SNCC fielded the largest staff of any civil rights organization in

2480-441: A guilty verdict against me, a white South Carolina Law Enforcement Division officer lied and testified that he saw me on top of a fire truck on the night of February 6, 1968, saying " Burn, baby, burn ." I was found guilty of a "one-man riot" and sentenced to one year hard labor. There was no justice. It was a legal sham. Soon after the event, students and activists dubbed it the "Orangeburg Massacre". According to Cleveland Sellers,

2635-526: A homeowner shot and injured three Claflin College students who he said had been trespassing. Late that night, two white men drove a car onto campus and shot at students before being chased off with rocks and bottles. On Wednesday evening Governor McNair decided to activate the National Guard . His main concern, shared by the police chiefs, was based on the unfounded rumor that the "plan of the black power people"

2790-416: A local bowling alley, marking the first instance of police killing student protestors at an American university. Two days before the shootings, student activists had been arrested for a sit-in at the segregated All-Star Bowling Lane . When a crowd of several hundred Claflin and South Carolina State College (State College) students gathered outside the bowling alley to protest the arrests, police dispersed

2945-556: A lot of people all doing what they think needs to be done," was for Hayden the very realization of her mentor's vision. Such was "the participatory, town-hall, consensus-forming nature" of the operation Ella Baker had helped set in motion that Hayden could feel herself to be "at the center of the organization" without having, "in any public way", to be "a leader". Yet when Elaine DeLott Baker joined Hayden in Mississippi in May 1964 she found "a hierarchy in place". Based "on considerations of race,

3100-612: A movement for social change in the state that would continue to be led by Mississippians. This was, he suggested, what organizing for voter registration was all about – "challenging people in various ways to take control of their own lives." Over the course of Freedom Summer (and with assistance in developing the curriculum from, among others, Howard Zinn ), COFO set up more than 40 Freedom Schools in African-American communities across Mississippi. More than 3,000 students attended, many of whom participated in registration efforts. With

3255-475: A national search for a new president immediately. On December 13, 2007, the board selected Leonard McIntyre, the Dean of the College of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences at SC State to serve as interim president. Hugine was the fourth president to leave SC State since Nance retired in 1986. George Cooper, formerly with the U.S. Department of Agriculture , assumed the presidency of S.C. State on July 16, 2008, and

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3410-450: A new Executive. It was time to recognize that SNCC no longer had a "student base" (with the move to voter registration, the original campus protest groups had largely evaporated) and that the staff, "the people who do the most work," were the organization's real "nucleus". But the "many problems and many strains within the organization" caused by the "freedom" allowed to organizers in the field were also reason, he argued, to "change and alter"

3565-474: A parallel state Democratic Party primary . The MFDP would send an integrated slate of delegates to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City and there contest the credentials of the all-white Mississippi regulars. As part of this project SNCC's Charlie Cobb proposed summer field schools. Encouraging youth "to articulate their own desires, demands, and questions," the schools would help ensure

3720-632: A policeman swung his club". Cecil Williams recalled seeing two officers beating a female student who fell while fleeing. Eight students and one officer were sent to the hospital. The rest of the students fled back to campus, some smashing the windows of cars and businesses on their way. Although the Associated Press ran a story the following day claiming that cars had been overturned; in fact, the students had not overturned any cars and had caused less than $ 5000 in damages. As soon as students arrived back on campus, they held an impromptu mass meeting. Sellers

3875-487: A riot, arson , assault and battery with intent to kill, property damage, housebreaking, and grand larceny . Some of the hospital staff insulted and demeaned the students. Oscar Butler recalled overhearing a staff member say "they asked for it". Half an hour after the shooting, a group of students broke into the ROTC building and stole a handful of training rifles. The rifles lacked firing pins and, after other students spoke to

4030-439: A speech about the massacre the following day. He called it "...one of the saddest days in the history of South Carolina", but said that the shootings had taken place off campus, that the officers were reacting to being fired upon, and that the shootings had been necessary "to protect life and property." He accused "black power advocates" of having "sparked" the incident, and mentioned the theft of ROTC rifles as having helped escalate

4185-411: A squad of highway patrol officers under Lieutenant Jesse Spell advanced up Watson Street. The students retreated towards Lowman Hall , throwing rocks and bottles. The fire was quickly extinguished but continued to smolder. As Spell's squad turned to scale the embankment at the end of Watson Street, someone threw two white banister posts at patrolmen Donald Crosby and David Shealy. Crosby ducked, but Shealy

4340-511: A succession of band directors influenced the growth of the band as it became part of the Department of Music program. The nickname "Marching 101" came about when the band started with 100 members and 1 majorette. Today, the band has over 150 members and is accompanied by a majorette team named " Champagne". In 2011,2012,2014 and 2016 the Marching 101 was voted to perform at the annual Honda Battle of

4495-576: A third level (the mezzanine ) was added in a 1979 expansion. South Carolina State is a charter member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and participates in NCAA Division I ( FCS for college football). The school sponsors basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball, cross country , track and field, and tennis for women, and basketball, tennis, track and field, cross country, and football for men. The athletic teams compete as

4650-476: A whistle, as if signalling to fire. In either case, the noise caused the students to turn and run, some holding their hands in the air or dropping to the ground. Lieutenant Spell then shouted "now"; he and at least eight other patrolmen opened fire on the students. City police officer John Cook joined in as well, and four additional patrolmen fired over the students' heads. The shooting lasted eight seconds. Most patrolmen fired from Remington Model 870 shotguns, while

4805-550: A wide disparity in funding between State College and white colleges in South Carolina, in January, Governor McNair announced that he was rejecting State College's request for a budget increase. Orangeburg had not yet seen the same civil rights reforms as most areas in the south. Many institutions remained segregated, including doctors' offices, entertainment venues, and the Orangeburg Regional Hospital . Political offices remained beyond

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4960-412: A year before). But with the all-white delegations of other southern states threatening to walk out, Johnson engineered a "compromise" in which the national Democratic Party offered the 68 MFDP delegates two at-large seats from where they could watch the floor proceedings but not take part. Fannie Lou Hamer led her delegates out of the convention: "We didn't come all this way for no two seats when all of us

5115-644: Is a public , historically black , land-grant university in Orangeburg, South Carolina . It is the only public, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina, is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund , and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The university's beginnings were as the South Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical Institute in 1872 in compliance with

5270-549: Is an event largely remembered for King's delivery of his "I Have a Dream" speech, SNCC had a significant role in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . But it was at odds with the other sponsoring civil rights, labor, and religious organizations, all of whom were prepared to applaud the Kennedy Administration for its Civil Rights Bill (the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ). In the version of his speech leaked to

5425-467: Is known as The Marching 101 . The band are regular performers at football games throughout the southeast, nationally televised professional football games, and has performed in The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and The Rose Bowl Parade. The band was organized in 1918 as a "regimental band" performing military drills as well as assisting with music in the college Sunday school and other occasions. From 1924 on,

5580-534: Is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The university was placed on probation in June 2014 for failing to meet the accreditor's standards "concerning governing board conflicts of interest and board/administration structure, as well as financial stability and controls." In June 2015, the SACS decided to allow the college to retain its accreditation, but kept them on probation for another year. In June 2016, SACSCOC decided to remove

5735-601: Is the tallest building in Orangeburg County, and a new library building (1968), not to mention enlargements and renovations of existing facilities. The school also opened the I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium, which is the only facility of its kind on a historically black university campus in the United States. After Nance's retirement in 1986, Albert Smith assumed the office of the school's president and, among other achievements, created an honors college in 1988. During

5890-506: Is tired." Activists, Hayden suggests, were staggered to find the Democratic Party "in the role of racist lunch counter owner": "the core of SNCC's work, voter registration, was [now] open to question." In the wake of Atlantic City, Elaine DeLott Baker recalls the desolation of project offices "that had only recently been hives of activity and energy" and the shutting down of Freedom Schools and community centers. In September 1964, at

6045-406: Is trying to take the revolution out of the streets and put it in the courts. Listen Mr. Kennedy, the black masses are on the march for jobs and for freedom, and we must say to the politicians that there won't be a "cooling-off period." Under pressure from the other groups, changes were made. "We cannot support" the 1963 Kennedy Civil Rights Bill was re-scripted as "we support with reservations". In

6200-639: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 barring discrimination in public accommodations, employment and private education, and the equally broad Voting Rights Act of 1965 , faith in the Johnson Administration and its liberal allies was ebbing, and a gulf had opened between SNCC and other civil rights organizations. In Atlantic City Fannie Lou Hamer confessed she "lost hope in American society." Questions of strategic direction were also questions of "structure". What Stokely Carmichael described as "not an organization but

6355-549: The Edmund Pettus Bridge where two days before ("Bloody Sunday") the first had been brutally charged and batoned, Forman was appalled. Yet within SNCC itself Forman increasingly was concerned by the lack of "internal cohesion". At Waveland Forman proposed that the staff (some twenty), who under the original constitution had had "a voice but no vote," constitute "themselves as the Coordinating Committee" and elect

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6510-518: The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue rules giving force to the repudiation of the " separate but equal " doctrine. After the new ICC rules took effect on November 1, 1961, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains; "white" and "colored" signs were to be removed from the terminals (lunch counters, drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms) serving interstate customers. To test

6665-657: The Kennedy Administration , CORE announced it was discontinuing the action. Undeterred, Diane Nash called for new riders. Oretha Castle Haley , Jean C. Thompson, Rudy Lombard, James Bevel , Marion Barry , Angeline Butler, Stokely Carmichael , and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland joined John Lewis and Hank Thomas , the two young SNCC members of the original Ride. They traveled on to a savage beating in Montgomery, Alabama , to arrest in Jackson, Mississippi , and to confinement in

6820-583: The Lincoln Memorial rally. Together with Coretta Scott King and other the wives of civil leaders SNCC staffer and Ella Baker protégé Casey Hayden found herself walking up Independence Avenue while the media recorded the men marching down Constitution Avenue. Despite protesting behind the scenes with Anna Hedgeman (who was to go on to co-found the National Organization for Women ), women were to be featured as singers, but not as speakers. In

6975-503: The Orangeburg Regional Hospital . In the aftermath of the killings, the bowling alley and most remaining whites-only establishments in Orangeburg were desegregated. Federal prosecutors charged nine patrolmen with deprivation of rights under color of law by firing on the demonstrators, but they were acquitted in the subsequent trial. The state of South Carolina charged one of the protestors, Cleveland Sellers , with several riot charges. He

7130-685: The South Carolina State College Historic District , and separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The library is the Miller F. Whittaker Library. The library was allocated $ 1 million from the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967 for its construction, and the library was dedicated in 1969. The library is named in honor of the university's third president. Originally two levels,

7285-644: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and others were being lost to a de-segregating Democratic Party and to federally-funded anti-poverty programs. Following an aborted merger with the Black Panther Party in 1968, SNCC effectively dissolved. Because of the successes of its early years, SNCC is credited with breaking down barriers, both institutional and psychological, to the empowerment of African-American communities. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

7440-545: The law school at the then-segregated University of South Carolina . The law program folded in 1966 after the University of South Carolina integrated. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement , many students participated in marches and rallies aimed at ending segregation. The struggle came to a climax on the night on February 8, 1968, when three students were killed and 27 others were wounded by state policemen at

7595-658: The 1862 Land Grant Act within the institution of Claflin College—now known as Claflin University . In 1896 the South Carolina General Assembly passed an act of separation and established a separate institution – the Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina , its official name until 1954. Academic programs received more attention as the student population increased, but other programs, such as

7750-502: The 1967–1968 school year. The college had been led for the preceding decade by President Brenner Turner, a conservative on civil rights who strove to maintain good relations with the white state government. Students were bound by a strict code of conduct and forbidden to form political organizations or take part in civil rights protests . These policies provoked sporadic student protests that the Turner administration firmly shut down. However, in

7905-611: The Bands held in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee By the mid-1960s the measured nature of the gains made, and the violence with which they were resisted, were generating dissent from the group's principles of nonviolence , of white participation in the movement, and of field-driven, as opposed to national-office, leadership and direction. By this time many of SNCC's original organizers were working with

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8060-686: The Bulldogs or Lady Bulldogs and the school colors are garnet and navy blue. The school's football team has won more conference championships than any other school in the MEAC with 18 championships. Three former Bulldogs are members of the College Football Hall of Fame , including coach Willie Jeffries . The team also has six Black college football national championship titles, with the most recent title won in 2021. There are over 50 registered student organizations on campus. The university's marching band

8215-525: The FBI reopened the case as part of its re-examination of civil rights-era crimes, but it declined to bring charges because the nine officers had already been acquitted. In 2008, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act made it possible to reopen cold cases from before 1970, and starting in 2010, the deaths of Smith, Middleton, and Hammond have been on the Department of Justice's list of unsolved civil rights cases. In 1970,

8370-727: The ICC ruling and in the hope of mobilizing the local black community in a broader campaign, in October 1961 SNCC members Charles Sherrod and Cordell Reagon led a sit-in at the bus terminal in Albany, Georgia . By mid-December, having drawn in the NAACP and a number of other organizations, the Albany Movement had more than 500 protesters in jail. There they were joined briefly by Martin Luther King Jr. and by Ralph Abernathy . King sought advantage in

8525-564: The Kennedy Administration with large liberal foundations, the Voter Education Project (VEP) was formed in early 1962 to channel funds into voter drives in the eleven Southern states. Inducted by sit-in campaigns and hardened in the Freedom Rides, many student activists saw VEP as a government attempt to co-opt their movement. Lonnie C. King Jr. , a student from Morehouse College in Atlanta, felt that "by rechanneling its energies" what

8680-517: The Kennedys were "trying to do was kill the Movement." But others were already convinced that obtaining the right to vote was the key to unlocking political power for Black Americans. Older Black southerners had been pressing SNCC to move in this direction for some time. Mississippi NAACP leader Amzie Moore had tabled a voter registration drive at the SNCC's second conference in October 1960. A split over

8835-765: The Lee County Public Works building, the Leesburg Stockade . It took SNCC photographer Danny Lyon smuggling himself into the Stockade to publicize the case nationally In the fall of 1963, with the assistance of 100 northern volunteers SNCC conducted the Freedom Ballot , a mock gubernatorial election in which over 80,000 black Mississippians demonstrated their willingness to exercise the constitutional right to vote that state law and violent intimidation had denied them since Reconstruction . (Only 6.7 per cent of

8990-635: The Maximum Security (Death Row) Unit of the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary --"Parchman Farm". Recognizing SNCC's determination, CORE and the SCLC rejected the Administration's call for a "cooling off" period and joined with the students in a Freedom Riders Coordinating Committee to keep the Rides rolling through June and into September. During those months, more than 60 different Freedom Rides criss-crossed

9145-532: The SCLC, Executive Secretary James Forman saw himself as championing popularly accountable, grassroots organization. Believing it "would detract from, rather than intensify" the focus on ordinary people's involvement in the movement, he had not appreciated King's appearance in Albany in December 1961. When on March 9, 1965, King, seemingly on his own authority, was able to turn the second Selma to Montgomery march back at

9300-405: The SCLC, but the conference had been conceived and organized by then SCLC director Ella Baker . Baker was a critic of what she perceived as King's top-down leadership at the SCLC. "Strong people don't need strong leaders," she told the young activists. Speaking to the students' own experience of protest organization, it was Baker's vision that appeared to prevail. SNCC did not constitute itself as

9455-643: The South, most of them converging on Jackson, where every Rider was arrested, more than 300 in total. An unknown number were arrested in other Southern towns, and many were beaten including, in Monroe, North Carolina , SNCC's Executive Secretary James Forman . It is estimated that almost 450 people, black and white in equal number, participated. With CORE, SNCC had been making plans for a mass demonstration in Washington when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy finally prevailed on

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9610-454: The South. Yet to many the movement seemed to be at a loss. In Mississippi Casey Hayden recalls everyone "reeling from the violence" (3 project workers killed; 4 people critically wounded; 80 beaten, 1,000 arrests; 35 shooting incidents, 37 churches bombed or burned; and 30 black businesses or homes burned), and also from "the new racial imbalance" following the summer influx of white student volunteers. The local black staff, "the backbone" of

9765-410: The State of South Carolina charged Cleveland Sellers with riot on the night of February 8. However, after the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence of Seller's involvement in the events that day, the judge directed a verdict of not guilty on that charge. Instead, the judge asked the jury to consider whether Sellers was guilty of riot on February 6. The jury convicted him and he was sentenced to

9920-413: The World War I era, Miller Hall is being closed due to fire alarm system malfunctions, and Bethea is being closed after 50 years of service due to numerous building and health problems. Bethea Hall will be torn down to make way for a new $ 33 million complex for the School of Engineering. The dining halls, both Washington Dining Hall and "The Pitt", located in the Student Union, received major facelifts, and

10075-486: The amount of time spent in the struggle, dangers suffered, and finally, of gender," this was not a hierarchy office, but "an unspoken understanding of who should speak up at meetings, who should propose ideas in public places, and who should remain silent." Black men were at the top, "then black women, followed by white men, and at the bottom, white women." Field staff, among them "women, black and white," still retained "an enormous amount of operational freedom, they were indeed

10230-431: The arrival of these outside officials "disrupted any kind of communication among white leaders, the college campuses, and the African American community". Shuler cites Sellers as saying that while negotiations had been slow before the arrival of state officials, afterwards they broke down. By the evening of Thursday, February 8, tensions were high and the police had set up a command post (nicknamed " Checkpoint Charlie ") at

10385-607: The black voting age population of Mississippi was registered, compared to 70.2 per cent of the white voting age population). In coordination with CORE, the SNCC followed up on the ballot with the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project, also known as Freedom Summer . This brought over 700 white Northern students to the South, where they volunteered as teachers and organizers. According to Julian Bond , their presence can be credited to freelance social activist Allard Lowenstein : white students, he had proposed, would not only "provide needed manpower", "their white skins might provoke interest from

10540-405: The bowling alley, the hospital, and doctors' offices as well as an end to police brutality. Tensions escalated rapidly over the next few days. On Wednesday morning, the student leaders submitted their request to hold a march, but were rebuffed. Instead, Mayor E. O. Pandarvis, City Manager Bob Stevenson, and several Orangeburg business leaders came to the State College campus in an attempt to placate

10695-408: The bowling alley. Stroman responded that getting arrested was his plan so that he could challenge the policy in court. Stroman and a group of about 40 students returned to the bowling alley on Tuesday evening. They were met by 20 officers led by Chief Poston and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) Chief J. P. Strom . Chief Poston told Stroman that 40 was probably more than needed to start

10850-406: The citizens of Danville, Virginia who must live in constant fear in a police state. This bill will not protect the hundreds of people who have been arrested on trumped-up charges like those in Americus, Georgia, where four young men are in jail, facing a death penalty, for engaging in peaceful protest. I want to know, which side is the federal government on? The revolution is a serious one. Mr. Kennedy

11005-615: The city council had rejected them). In a journal article published a few months after the shooting, Washington Post reporter Jim Hoagland argued that this media silence may have contributed to the students' frustration and anger. There were several outbreaks of violence on Wednesday. With no protest planned, frustrated students gathered in informal groups to discuss the police "whipping our girls". Several crowds of angry students threw rocks and bricks at cars driving on U.S. Route 601 that contained white passengers. Police responded by setting up roadblocks to block traffic. Two blocks from campus,

11160-577: The college from probation and retain full accreditation with no sanctions. U.S. News & World Report currently has SC State ranked 76 out of 136 in the Regional Universities South category, and 39 out of 79 HBCUs. The school's campus size is 160 acres (65 ha), with an additional 267 acres (108 ha) at Camp Harry Daniels in Elloree, South Carolina . Three buildings, Lowman Hall , Hodge Hall , and Dukes Gymnasium are included in

11315-403: The college's NAACP chapter invited a lawyer to discuss how they could mount a legal challenge. The lawyer explained that while the legal status of segregated bowling alleys was unclear, the fact that All-Star had a lunch counter meant that it was required to desegregate under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . Student activist John Stroman devised a plan to prove that Floyd's club-members-only strategy

11470-463: The college, creating a classroom shortage problem for the school. In 1947, the United States Army created an ROTC detachment, in which all male students were required to enroll until mandatory enrollment ended in 1969. The school's name changed, as well, as the South Carolina General Assembly renamed the school South Carolina State College in 1954. Because of the "separate but equal" laws in

11625-880: The committee and its field projects were Fisk University student Diane Nash , Tennessee State student Marion Barry , and American Baptist Theological Seminary students James Bevel , John Lewis , and Bernard Lafayette , all involved in the Nashville Student Movement ; their mentor at Vanderbilt University , James Lawson ; Charles F. McDew , who led student protests at South Carolina State University ; J. Charles Jones , Johnson C. Smith University , who organized 200 students to participate in sit-ins at whites-only department stores and service counters throughout Charlotte , North Carolina ; Julian Bond from Morehouse College , Atlanta; and Stokely Carmichael from Howard University , Washington, D.C. The invitation had been issued by Martin Luther King Jr. on behalf of

11780-445: The committee and its support staff) were to be recognized as "the primary expression of a protest in a given area." Under the same general principle, that "the people who do the work should make the decisions", the students committed to a " participatory democracy " which, avoiding office hierarchy, sought to reach decisions by consensus. Group meetings were convened in which every participant could speak for as long as they wanted and

11935-513: The convention's credentials committee were televised, giving a national and international audience to the testimony of SNCC field secretary Fannie Lou Hamer : to her portrayal of the brutalities of a sharecropper's life, and of the obstruction and violence encountered by an African American in the exercise her constitutional rights. (Hamer still bore the marks of beatings meted to her, her father and other SNCC workers by police in Winona, Mississippi , just

12090-416: The court case, so Stroman asked the women and any men who did not want to be arrested to leave. The fifteen remaining staged a brief sit-in and were arrested for trespassing. To this point, everything had proceeded as planned. But as the police were leading the arrestees outside, another student was arrested for cursing at an officer. One student later recalled that this was a turning point, saying "[e]verything

12245-520: The creation of a plaza which resides in front of the Student Union and passes by several dorms and buildings in the central portion of the campus. Under SC State's next president, Leroy Davis, South Carolina State University celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1996, and the school constructed a Fine Arts Center in 1999, giving the Art and Music departments a new home. Under the leadership of Andrew Hugine Jr. ,

12400-473: The crowd blocked them from leaving. Police and students began yelling abuse at each other. Although it is not clear which happened first, police began beating students with billy clubs and one student sprayed something in an officer's eyes. The beatings continued for several minutes. Witnesses described seeing an officer grab and restrain a female student while another beat her with his club. Others reported seeing "a young woman begging not to be hit again, even as

12555-408: The crowd with billy clubs . Students requested permission to hold a march downtown and submitted a list of demands to city officials. The request for a march was denied, but city officials agreed to review the demands. As tensions in Orangeburg mounted over the next few days, Governor Robert McNair ordered hundreds of National Guardsmen and highway patrol officers to the city to keep the peace. On

12710-489: The dining hall inside Truth Hall has been renovated into a cyber cafe, Pete's Arena. The university is also working to renovate Lowman Hall, which, when refurbished, will be the new administration building. South Carolina State recently broke ground on the new James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center (UTC), which will be home to the only UTC in South Carolina, one of only three among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and one of only 33 total UTCs in

12865-635: The encouragement of SNCC field secretary Frank Smith , a meeting of cotton pickers at a Freedom School in Shaw, Mississippi , gave birth to the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union. At its peak, in the summer of 1965 the MFLU had 1,350 members and about 350 on strike. On August 4, 1964, before the state MFDP convention, the bodies of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were discovered buried in an earthen dam. Missing for weeks since disappearing after investigating

13020-492: The event, a few women were allowed to sit on the Lincoln Memorial platform and the NAACP's Daisy Bates , who had been instrumental in the integration of Little Rock Central High School , was permitted a brief tribute to “Negro Women Fighters for Freedom”. From their “bitterly humiliating” experience in Washington, Pauli Murray , who later coined the term “Jane Crow” to describe the double handicap of race and sex, concluded that black women "can no longer postpone or subordinate

13175-545: The event. It was the subject of two films released after its 40th anniversary in April 2008: Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre, 1968 by documentary filmmakers Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson; and Black Magic by Dan Klores. In 2009, the SC State Henderson Players (an acting troop of SC State students) put on a play about the events called Take a Stand . In 2019 Cecil J. Williams , a graduate of Claflin, opened

13330-533: The fact that Orangeburg happened at night, meaning there were fewer videos or photographs, had an impact on public reactions. Survivor Thomas Kennerly blamed the lack of attention on the reactions of state officials. He also recalled that the Orangeburg Massacre was followed by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy , which quickly took over the news cycle. In contrast, Kent State and Jackson State happened in close succession, keeping

13485-523: The fight against discrimination because of sex to the civil rights struggle but must carry on both fights simultaneously.” The previous month, July 1963, SNCC was involved in another march that eventually made headlines. With the NAACP in Americus, Georgia , SNCC organized a protest march on a segregated movie theater that concluded with the arrest of upwards of 33 high-school girls. The "Stolen Girls" were imprisoned 45 days without charge in brutal conditions in

13640-402: The first group of black students to bowl there on the day classes resumed, February 26. Most businesses in Orangeburg followed suit and desegregated. Federal prosecutors filed an information against the nine state patrolmen who had admitted to firing on the crowd, including Lt. Spell. They were charged with carrying out summary justice , thereby depriving the students of their civil rights. It

13795-570: The first historically black university to host a presidential candidate debate on its campus. Hugine's contract was terminated by the SC State Board of Trustees on December 11, 2007, only four days before the Fall Commencement Exercises, by a telephone conference meeting. According to the board, his reasons for dismissal were a performance review for the 2006–2007 school year and a second education review. The board decided to conduct

13950-455: The group that had stolen the rifles, they were returned within about twenty minutes. The reaction of the mainstream media was mainly indifference or support for the actions of the police. Civil rights demonstrations had come to be seen as violent after major riots in Detroit and Newark the previous summer. According to journalist and later historian Dave Nolan, "most whites seemed to feel that it

14105-494: The height of a protest that opposed the segregation of a nearby bowling alley. The tragedy, known as the Orangeburg massacre , is commemorated by a memorial plaza near the front of the campus. From the late-1960s to the mid-1980s, under the leadership of M. Maceo Nance, the campus experienced unprecedented growth in the form of new academic buildings, such as Nance Hall (1974) and Belcher Hall (1986), new residence halls, such as Sojourner Truth Hall (1972), which, at 14 stories,

14260-428: The hospital. John Carson approached several officers in the waiting room and demanded to know why they had shot his younger brother, Ernest Raymond, eight times. The patrolmen refused to answer, and when Caron continued to repeat his question, they placed him under arrest and beat him in the head with their rifle butts. Cleveland Sellers was arrested while awaiting hospital treatment; he would later be charged with inciting

14415-420: The impasse," Casey Hayden tried to attach to Forman's proposal various sub-committees and provisos to ensure that "leadership for all our programs" would continue to be driven from the field, and not from central office "which makes many program areas responsible to one person rather than to all of us." For Forman this still suggested too loose, too confederal a structure for an organization whose challenge, without

14570-460: The intersection of Russell Street and US Highway 601 to monitor the State College campus. Around 7:00 p.m., about 50 State College students gathered at the front of campus to start a bonfire. Police intervened to stop them and called up additional Highway Patrolmen to Checkpoint Charlie and to a warehouse and freight depot across from Claflin College (see map). Students began to shout insults at

14725-448: The issue of how campus unrest was handled by law enforcement and university administrations in the public eye. Orangeburg remained in a state of high tension in the weeks after the shootings. Both colleges closed and let their students return home. McNair placed Orangeburg under a curfew. Hundreds of National Guards and highway patrolmen remained in the city despite a petition by 800 black residents to have them withdrawn. The NAACP launched

14880-411: The killings. Despite the fact that the Orangeburg Massacre was the first time police shot and killed students on a United States university campus, they received much less media coverage than the later police shootings at Kent State and Jackson State . For example, the week's issue of Time did not mention the event. Dave Nolan argues that the subject of the protests may have played a role: by 1968,

15035-453: The lunch counter and were refused service there as well. The staff threw away anything they touched. Stroman pointed out to Floyd that the white student had been allowed to bowl without ever showing that he was a member, but Floyd just called the police. City Police Chief Roger Poston arrived and ordered the alley closed for the night. Chief Poston then met with Stroman and told him that he would have to arrest him for trespassing if he returned to

15190-444: The manpower and publicity of white volunteers, was to mount and coordinate a Southwide Freedom Summer and "build a Black Belt political party." At her last Committee meeting in the fall of 1965, Hayden told both Forman and Chairman John Lewis that the "imbalance of power within SNCC" was such that, if the movement was to remain "radically democratic", they would need to step down. Forman and Lewis did step down in their own time, in

15345-523: The meeting would continue until everyone who was left was in agreement with the decision. Given the physical risks involved in many activities in which SNCC was to engage this was thought particularly important: "no one felt comfortable making a decision by majority rule that might cost somebody else's life." Initially the SNCC continued the focus on sit-ins and boycotts targeting establishments (restaurants, retail stores, theaters) and public amenities maintaining whites-only or segregated facilities. But it

15500-534: The murder of activist Herbert Lee , persuaded many that in the Deep South voter registration was as direct a challenge to white supremacy as anything they had been doing before. "If you went into Mississippi and talked about voter registration they're going to hit you on the side of the head and that," Reggie Robinson, one of the SNCC's first field secretaries, quipped is "as direct as you can get." In 1962, Bob Moses garnered further support for SNCC's efforts by forging

15655-552: The name was chosen to be reminiscent of the Sharpeville massacre . In Sharpeville, South African police had open fired on and killed dozens of unarmed anti- apartheid activists. Robert McNair strongly disliked the name because he thought it suggested the shootings had been pre-planned. Nevertheless, "Orangeburg Massacre" gradually became the accepted name in the decades after the event. South Carolina State College (now South Carolina State University) has multiple memorials dedicated to

15810-485: The nation. Currently work is being done to expand Hodge Hall. This science building will be gaining some much needed research and laboratory space. South Carolina State hosted the first debate of the 2008 Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Debate series. This event, which took place on April 26, 2007, at the Martin Luther King Auditorium, was televised nationally on MSNBC . This debate made SC State

15965-470: The national media attention his arrest had drawn. In return for the city's commitment to comply with the ICC ruling and to release those protesters willing to post bail, he agreed to leave town. The city reneged, however, so protests and subsequent arrests continued into 1962. News reports across the country portrayed the Albany debacle as "one of the most stunning defeats" in King's career. What they also reported

16120-481: The new Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leaders such as Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown . This view was reinforced when a SNCC organizer, Cleveland Sellers , arrived in Orangeburg in October. In his autobiography, Sellers wrote that he had returned to his home state because "I believed I could develop a movement by focusing attention on the problems of the poor blacks in South Carolina." The Orangeburg elites viewed Sellers as an outside agitator who

16275-401: The new crowd gathering, they offered to release Stroman and his classmates on the condition that they help defuse the situation at the bowling alley. This worked at first; Stroman and the others returned and were able to explain that the arrests were pre-planned. Students began to return to campus. The mood of the crowd changed when a fire truck arrived. Fire hoses had been used in Orangeburg as

16430-500: The news media that black skins could not produce." With the murder of two of their number, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner , alongside local activist (Freedom Rider and voter educator) James Chaney , this indeed was to be the effect. Freedom Summer attracted international attention. For SNCC the focus of summer project became the organization, through the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), of

16585-426: The next hour gathered around the bonfire in good spirits. They told reporters that they would stay as long as the police did. More than 130 police from at least five agencies were positioned near the front of State College's campus. They were under the overall command of SLED Chief Strom, and under orders from Governor McNair not to let the students leave campus. Through journalist intermediaries, Strom attempted to get

16740-505: The night of February 8, students from both colleges and Wilkinson High School started a bonfire at the front of the State College campus. When police moved to put out the fire, students threw debris at them, including a piece of a wooden banister that injured an officer. Several minutes later, at least nine patrolmen and one city police officer opened fire on the crowd of students. Dozens of fleeing students were wounded; Sam Hammond, Henry Smith, and Delano Middleton were later pronounced dead at

16895-444: The ones that were keeping things moving." But from those leading the debate on new directions for the movement DeLott Baker saw "little recognition of that reality," and the ground was shifting. The violence and emotional stresses of four years had eroded the focus and spirits of many veteran field staffers who appeared to central office staff as increasingly unpredictable and unreliable. Communication between core staff and field staff

17050-409: The patrolmen believed Shealy had been shot. Most of the sixty-six patrolmen in front of them had taken up positions behind the embankment or in the surrounding vegetation and were invisible to the students. When the first students reached about 100 feet from the officers, some witnesses recalled hearing a patrolman fire a shot into the air, possibly as a warning. Other witnesses would later recall hearing

17205-537: The police probing questions. According to Washington Post reporter Jim Hoagland, they "covered the story largely from the Holiday Inn ." Martin Luther King Jr. blamed the massacre on SLED Chief J. P. Strom, and called for an investigation by the US Attorney General. The NAACP's executive director Roy Wilkins echoed King's call for an investigation. John Lewis accused the white press of conspiring to obscure

17360-431: The police. A .22 caliber pistol was fired from a dormitory over their heads of the police stationed near the warehouse and freight depot. About 9:30 p.m., a larger group of students led by State College student Henry Smith made a second attempt at building a bonfire. This time they were successful, using wood from a nearby abandoned house. About 200 students from State College, Claflin, and Wilkinson High School spent

17515-531: The press John Lewis remarked that those marching for jobs and freedom "have nothing to be proud of, for hundreds and thousands of our brothers are not here—for they have no money for their transportation, for they are receiving starvation wages...or no wages at all." He went on to announce: In good conscience, we cannot support the administration's civil rights bill. This bill will not protect young children and old women from police dogs and fire hoses when engaging in peaceful demonstrations. This bill will not protect

17670-450: The priority to be accorded voter registration was avoided by Ella Baker's intervention. She suggested that the organization create two distinct wings: one for direct action (which Diane Nash was to lead) and the other for voter registration. But the white violence visited in the summer of 1961 on the first registration efforts (under the direction of Bob Moses ) in McComb, Mississippi , including

17825-507: The projects were frustrated, even resentful, at having to deal "with a lot of young white people who were intellectual and moneyed," "ignorant" of realities on the ground, and who, with their greater visibility, brought additional risks. But most of all SNCC activists were "staggered" by the debacle in Atlantic City. Being confronted by the Democratic Party "in the role of racist lunch counter owner" had thrown "the core of SNCC's work", voter registration, into question. Notwithstanding passage of

17980-551: The protection and support of a church hierarchy," were not long indifferent. In August 1960, the 172nd General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church wrote to SNCC: "Laws and customs requiring racial discrimination are, in our judgement, such serious violations of the law of God as to justify peaceful and orderly disobedience or disregard of these laws." Organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to dramatize

18135-485: The reach of black citizens, in part because the city boundaries were gerrymandered to exclude blacks. In the summer and fall of 1967, a whites-only bowling alley near campus, All-Star Bowling Lane , became a focus of student protests. Owner Harry K. Floyd repeatedly refused students' requests to desegregate. Instead, he followed the trend of replacing his "Whites Only" sign with one saying "Privately Owned" (and saying that only "club members" would be allowed in). In October,

18290-515: The school constructed a new 771-bed residence hall (Hugine Suites), which is the largest dormitory in South Carolina. The first four buildings in Phase One opened on August 26, 2006, and the last two in the first phase opened on September 10, 2006. With the opening of the new dorms, SC State has closed the following dorms, Bethea (freshmen male), Miller (female), Bradham (female), and Manning (female) Halls. Both Bradham and Manning Halls had been used since

18445-402: The segregated waiting room at Orangeburg Regional Hospital. Reporters overheard one of the patrolmen gloating over police radio, saying "You should have been here, ol' buddy; got a couple of 'em tonight." Over the next few hours the police arrested and heavily beat several more people. Louise Kelly Crawley would suffer a miscarriage after she was arrested and beaten while taking injured students to

18600-480: The situation. The Governor's office blamed Cleveland Sellers in particular. McNair's spokesman told reporters that Sellers was "the main man. He's the biggest nigger in the crowd" and said that he was the one who had thrown the banister at Officer Shealy. The Governor's account of events was widely accepted by the mainstream media in the weeks following the event. Most of the white reporters in Orangeburg failed to investigate official claims, interview key witnesses, or ask

18755-616: The southern states' disregard of the Supreme Court rulings ( Morgan v. Virginia , 1946 and Boynton v. Virginia , 1960 ) outlawing segregation in interstate transportation, in May 1961, the first Freedom Riders (seven black, six white, led by CORE director James Farmer ) travelled together on interstate buses. In Anniston , Alabama , they were brutally attacked by mobs of Ku Klux Klansmen . Local police stood by. After they were assaulted again in Birmingham, Alabama , and under pressure from

18910-487: The spring of 1967, student frustration exploded in a prolonged walkout that paralyzed the school. Students convinced Governor McNair to mediate, leading to Turner's resignation. The new interim president lifted many of the restrictions on students, including allowing political clubs to be established on campus. The two most important of these were the Black Awareness Coordinating Committee (BACC) and

19065-420: The spring, but with questions of structure and direction for the organization unresolved. In May 1966 Forman was replaced by Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson , who was determined "to keep the SNCC together." But Forman recalls male leaders fighting "her attempts as executive secretary to impose a sense of organizational responsibility and self-discipline," and "trying to justify themselves by the fact that their critic

19220-412: The state, the legislature gave the college large sums of money to build new academic facilities and dormitories, some of which still stand on the campus today, including the Student Union (1954), and Turner Hall (1956). This was done in order to give black students an environment of "equal" education. Also, the legislature created a law program for the college, mainly to prevent black students from attending

19375-583: The structure of decision making. Given the "external pressures" the requirement now was for "unity". Bob Moses opposed. The role of SNCC was to stimulate social struggles, not to provide an institutionalized leadership. "Leadership," Moses believed, "will emerge from the movement that emerges." Leadership is there in the people. You don't have to worry about where your leaders are, how are you going to get some leaders. ... If you go out and work with your people leadership will emerge. ... We don't know who they are now: and we don't need to know. "To get us through

19530-473: The students to move away from the front of campus, a request that they refused unless the police would leave first. At about 10:30 p.m., Strom and the other leading officers decided to call a firetruck to put out the bonfire. When the truck arrived, it advanced slowly up U.S. 601 with a police escort. On the truck's left, between the highway and railroad tracks were the National Guard. On the truck's right,

19685-478: The students. City leaders were unprepared for the students' questions and had no response to the demands read off by the students. The head of the chamber of commerce was slightly more conciliatory and offered to read the demands at the chamber's next meeting. There was no local media coverage of the students' grievances: The Times and Democrat (Orangeburg's local newspaper) did not publish the students' list of demands until several days later (when they reported that

19840-464: The survivors. A joint resolution was introduced in the South Carolina state general assembly in 2003 and re-introduced in each of the next three sessions of the legislature to establish an official investigation of the events of February 8, 1968, and to establish February 8 as a day of remembrance for the students killed and wounded in the protest. However, the legislature never voted on the resolution. Several works of media have also been produced about

19995-511: The tenure of Smith, the school also gained university status from the South Carolina General Assembly, becoming South Carolina State University in February 1992. In 1993, Barbara Hatton became the school's first female president and created many improvements for the campus, such as the 1994 renovation of Oliver C. Dawson Bulldog Stadium, constructing new suites and a larger press box, as well as increasing its capacity to 22,000. Hatton also spearheaded

20150-526: The three men killed were installed behind the granite memorial. Memorial services are held every year. From 1969 to 1983 they were held at the SHM Memorial Center and since then they have been held at the monument. In 2001, on the 33rd anniversary of the killings, Governor Jim Hodges became the first governor to attend the annual memorial. He issued a formal apology for the massacre. That same year, an oral history project recorded interviews with eight of

20305-511: The true nature of events. SNCC chairman Rap Brown issued the most radical statement, calling for black people to take up arms in self-defense and to "die like men". In the State College newspaper The Collegian , students decried the inaccurate reporting in the mainstream press and argued for why the anti-segregation protests were justified. Black students staged demonstrations across the country. In Greenville, South Carolina , black and white students (mostly from Furman ) protested together against

20460-598: The trustees who voted to oust him. In 2021, President Joe Biden visited Orangeburg to deliver a commencement address at South Carolina State. SCSU is the only university in South Carolina and only HBCU in the nation to offer a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering . The program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET . Currently, it operates through a strategic partnership with North Carolina State University and University of Wisconsin-Madison . South Carolina State

20615-458: The university's high school, were forced to close due to the Great Depression . The New Deal Programs were used to create, among other things, Wilkinson Hall, the university's first separate library building (now home to Admissions and Financial Aid). The college's campus grew, as it purchased over 150 acres (61 ha) for agricultural learning. After World War II, many students flocked to

20770-490: The victims. The gymnasium that opened later in the same year as the massacre was named the Smith–Hammond–Middleton Memorial Center in their honor. The college built a granite monument with the names of the victims at the center of campus in 1969. In 2000, the university erected a South Carolina Historical Marker explaining the history of the massacre near the entrance to campus. In 2022, bronze busts of

20925-606: The view of the then SNCC executive secretary, James Forman , those who had pushed the change were selling out to the cautious liberal politics of labor-movement leadership and the Catholic and Protestant church hierarchy. "If people had known they had come to Washington to aid the Kennedy administration, they would not have come in the numbers they did." A feature of the march itself, was that men and women were directed to proceed separately and that only male speakers were scheduled to address

21080-408: The waiting crowd "What do you want?." They roared back "Black Power! Black Power!" For Carmichael Black Power was a "call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations." We have to organize ourselves to speak from a position of strength and stop begging people to look kindly upon us. We are going to build a movement in this country based on the color of our skins that

21235-509: The white public was no longer supportive of demonstrations against segregation, whereas at the time the Kent and Jackson State students were killed, the Vietnam War was a highly charged national issue . Jack Bass and civil rights lawyer Eva Paterson argue that race was a key factor; the most famous of the three incidents (Kent State) was the one where the victims were white. Bass also suggests that

21390-434: The youth wing of SCLC. It steered an independent course that sought to channel the students' program through the organizers out in the field rather than through its national office in Atlanta ("small and rather dingy," located above a beauty parlor near the city's five Black colleges). Under the constitution adopted, the SNCC comprised representatives from each of the affiliated "local protest groups," and these groups (and not

21545-411: Was a cover for refusing black patrons: he would ask a white student without a club membership to try bowling at the alley. On Monday, February 5, 1968, the white student arrived and was able to start bowling without being asked to prove his club membership. A little while later, Stroman and a group of black students arrived and asked to bowl. When the staff refused to let them, the students tried sitting at

21700-482: Was a senior at Wilkinson High School. Hammond was killed by a shot to his back. Middleton received seven bullet wounds: three to his arm and one each to his hip, thigh, and heart. Smith was killed by shots from both sides, leaving five bullet wounds. Many of the student witnesses believed that the patrolmen had mistaken Smith for Sellers and had aimed their fire at him. The patrolmen testified that they had not aimed at any specific target. The injured students were taken to

21855-512: Was a woman" In October 1967 Smith-Robinson died, aged just 25, "of exhaustion" according to one of her co-workers, "destroyed by the movement." Replacing John Lewis as chairman in May 1966 was the 24-year old Stokely Carmichael . When on the night of June 16, 1966, following protests at the shooting of solo freedom marcher James Meredith , Carmichael walked out of jail (his 27th arrest) and into Broad Street Park in Greenwood, Mississippi , he asked

22010-411: Was conflict with SNCC. The New York Times noted that King's SCLC had taken steps "that seemed to indicate they were assuming control" of the movement in Albany, and that the student group had "moved immediately to recapture its dominant position on the scene." If the differences between the organizations were not resolved, the paper predicted "tragic consequences". As a result of meetings brokered by

22165-423: Was convicted on charges relating to events two days before the massacre. Sellers received a full pardon in 1993. In 2001, Jim Hodges became the first governor to make a formal apology for the massacre. City of Charleston City of Columbia City of Greenville City of Orangeburg Other localities The South Carolina State College (State College) underwent a major change in administration just before

22320-403: Was cool until the cops rushed into the crowd of students outside in the parking lot and arrested some cat." As the arrestees were driven downtown, one student returned to campus and shared news of the arrests with a crowd leaving a movie theater. The crowd, without knowing the arrests were planned, arrived at the bowling alley to make sure the arrestees were not being mistreated. When the police saw

22475-635: Was determined to deflect the MDFP effort. With the presidential election approaching the priority was to protect the Democrats' "Solid South" against inroads being made by Republican Barry Goldwater 's campaign and to minimise support for George Wallace 's third-party challenge. The MFDP nonetheless got to the National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City at the end of August. The proceedings of

22630-659: Was formed in April 1960 at a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina , attended by 126 student delegates from 58 sit-in centers in 12 states, from 19 northern colleges, and from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the National Student Association (NSA), and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Among those attending who were to emerge as strategists for

22785-543: Was justified to put them down as brutally as possible." This predisposition was reinforced by inaccurate reporting on the ground. The Associated Press reported that there had been a "heavy exchange of gunfire" and never issued a correction. Newspapers across the country ran the AP story with headlines such as "Three Die in Riot", "Trio Slain after Opening Fire on Police", or "Three Killed as Negroes, Police Exchange Shots". Governor McNair gave

22940-511: Was poor and getting worse. To field staff, the Atlanta office was out of touch and becoming more and more irrelevant. Meanwhile, there were no central strategies. Resources were dwindling and tensions over the allocation of resources were mounting As an opportunity to take stock, to critique and reevaluate the movement, a retreat in Waveland, Mississippi , was organized for November 1964. Like Ella Baker, in criticizing King's "messianic" leadership of

23095-413: Was present at the meeting, and, when asked for his advice, suggested that the students immediately occupy the intersections in front of campus and demand to speak to the chamber of commerce about the bowling alley issue. This proposal was rejected. Eventually, the students agreed to ask permission to hold a protest march the following day and drew up a list of ten demands. The demands included desegregating

23250-404: Was struck in the mouth and injured. The other patrolmen thought that Shealy had been shot, and several rushed to his aid. I remember hearing someone laugh just before we realized we were being shot at. We thought they were shooting in the air. Jordon M. Simmons III About five minutes later (around 10:38 p.m.), many of the students began to walk back towards the embankment, unaware that

23405-418: Was the first federal trial of police officers for using excessive force at a campus protest. The state patrol officers' defense was that they felt they were in danger, and protesters had shot at the officers first. All nine defendants were acquitted, although 36 witnesses stated they did not hear gunfire from the protesters on the campus before the shooting, and no students were found to be carrying guns. In 2007,

23560-589: Was the tenth president. The SC State Board of Trustees voted to terminate Cooper's contract on June 15, 2010. John E. Smalls, senior vice president of finance, was appointed to lead the university in the interim. President Cooper was reinstated two weeks later after a change in board membership. His predecessor, Andrew Hugine, Jr., who was also dismissed and sued the university, eventually accepting $ 60,000 to drop his suit for defamation and breach of contract. Hugine, now president of Alabama A&M University , sought $ 1-million from South Carolina State and $ 2-million from

23715-412: Was there to stir up trouble. There were several ongoing sources of racial tension at State College and in the surrounding city. An independent committee had been set up after Turner's resignation to investigate how conditions at the college could be improved, and the issued a list of recommendations. However, by the start of 1968 the board of trustees had still not formally accepted their findings. Despite

23870-525: Was to adopt a new tactic that helped galvanize the movement nationally. In February 1961, Diane Nash, Ruby Doris Smith , Charles Sherrod, and J. Charles Jones joined the Rock Hill, South Carolina sit-in protests and followed the example of the Friendship Nine in enduring an extended jail time rather than post bail. The "Jail-no-Bail" stand was seen as a moral refusal to accept, and to effectively subsidize,

24025-403: Was to attack utilities and burn down the city. Therefore, 250 Orangeburg-area National Guards took up positions protecting utilities across the city, joined by hundreds of highway patrol officers. On Thursday, McNair ordered an additional 110 National Guardsmen to Orangeburg. They were joined by FBI agents, officers from SLED, and Governor McNair's representatives. Journalist Jack Shuler argued that

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