An
act of racism in a small Southern town leads to a peaceful protest by
frustrated black college students who are denied use of the community’s only
bowling alley.
A
conservative Southern governor, wanting to appear tough to his white
constituents, overreacts to the civil rights protest, ordering a massive show
of armed force. As emotions fray and the situation veers out of control, nine
white highway patrolmen open gunfire onto a college campus—killing three black
students and wounding 27 others.
All
the students were unarmed and in retreat from the highway patrolmen at the time
of the shooting. Yet, without warning, they were shot in their backs with
deadly buckshot.
The
killings occurred on February 8, 1968 in a southern state that proudly
celebrated a record of nonviolence during the turbulent civil rights years. The
state claimed the deaths were the result of a two-way gun battle between
students and lawmen at the predominately black South Carolina State College in
Orangeburg.
To
bolster that claim and deflect responsibility from its own actions, the state
hastily devised a media campaign to blame the riot on Cleveland Sellers, a
young black activist working to organize area college students. At first, the people of South Carolina
believed it. Time, however, would unravel the state’s story.
The
legacy of the Orangeburg Massacre has come to define civil rights in South
Carolina for the past 40 years. The key government officials have since died,
taking the secrets of the shooting to their graves. Cleveland Sellers is now a
college president, respected for his lifelong work in civil rights. His son,
Bakari Sellers, at 21, was elected the youngest state legislator in the nation,
making an investigation of the Orangeburg Massacre one of his top priorities.
The Orangeburg Massacre has been part of my life since I was college in the late 1960s. I have written about it in my book, Whitewash: A Southern Journey through Music, Mayhem and Murder. I also maintain a website on the massacre and the story behind it. Please feel free to visit it.
The Orangeburg Massacre Website
