The Orangeburg Massacre

It was a cool February night nearly 40 years ago when a group of state troopers armed with riot guns gathered at the gates of South Carolina State College.
   A mixture of fear and tension lingered in the air. On the campus, students participating in a civil rights demonstration around a bonfire were headed toward disaster as tempers flared, obscenities were shouted and debris was tossed toward the officers on guard.
   Then shots rang out, continuing for 10 seconds. The demonstrators scrambled for safety as buckshot scattered, injuring nearly 30. Three young men  died that night -- Henry Smith, Samuel Hammond and Delano Middleton.
   Forty years after their deaths, those three names remain synonymous with the darkest hours of the civil rights movement in Orangeburg -- a movement that came to a climax on the night of Feb. 8, 1968.
  Today a monument stands in memory of the dead youths on the campus of  South Carolina State University, representing the struggle of blacks to attain equality in a state once segregated -- and a disturbing reminder of the tragedy that has become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.
   Ten years ago on the 30th anniversary,  hundreds gathered at SCSU to learn more about what happened in 1968 and the impact of the tragedy. A colloquium featured Jack Bass, co-author of the 1970 book "The Orangeburg Massacre," and panelists Cleveland Sellers, John Stroman and S.C. Human Affairs Commissioner Willis Ham, all of whom lived through the events.
   "I can tell the facts without too much difficulty. I was trained as a journalist so I was trained to be detached," said Bass, a native of North who cowrote the book with journalist Jack Nelson. It is considered the definitive account of the events of February 1968 in Orangeburg.
   Noting that most of the audience had not been born when the Orangeburg incident occurred, Bass gave detailed accounts of the events leading up to the deaths of the three youths.
   A group of three dozen students from State College's Lowman Hall marched to All Star Bowling Lanes on Feb. 6, 1968, in hopes of persuading the owner to let black students bowl.
   "It wasn't a race issue for the owner of the alley," Bass said. "It was economic -- the owner was afraid he would lose business if blacks came in."
   Panelist John Stroman, a native of Savannah and an avid league bowler, led several of the marches to the alley.
   "Vietnam was going on then," Stroman said. "We felt if we could go to Vietnam and die for our country, we felt we could enjoy the country."
   The alley had been closed that day on orders of the city police chief. When the students returned the next day, the bowling alley was surrounded by police toting nightsticks. A group of blacks was allowed into the alley; they were promptly arrested for trespassing.
   News of the arrest made its way back to campus and before long an angry throng began challenging police around All Star Bowling Lanes.
   A skirmish began when a store window was smashed and police reacted with urgency, swinging batons and administering tear gas.
   "After police swung batons, violence just erupted," Bass said.
   Students smashed windows and set fires to area buildings, causing about $5,000 worth of damage. Ten students were hospitalized in the wake of the riot.
   "The reaction was that it was a major riot causing millions in damage," Bass said. "People were beaten, and people were angered. At one point there was some gunfire from Claflin College; somebody fired a gun over the heads of patrolmen."
   Cleveland Sellers, now head of  African-American studies at the University of South Carolina, was blamed from the very beginning for inciting a riot. Sellers, who was State College's organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was not even in Orangeburg the night of the arrests at the alley.

"I was targeted because of my long experience with civil rights movements," said Sellers, a native of Denmark in neighboring Bamberg County. "I was a very young person when I was introduced to the civil rights movements."
   By Feb. 8, 1968, state troopers were posted around State's campus. According to Bass, the troopers had been authorized to fire their guns at their own discretion, rather than wait for a commanding officer's order. Additionally, their shotguns were loaded with buckshot pellets instead of bird shot.
   "Riot guns are not designed to maim or kill," Bass said. "The ammunition issued to the officers was double-aught buckshot. It really was a formula for disaster."
   The first shots were fired by the troopers. A commanding officer raised his gun in the air and fired several shots without warning over the crowd to settle them down. Officers continued firing out of fear.
   In wake of the deaths of Smith, Hammond and Middleton, the only person arrested and convicted was Sellers.
   "Cleveland (Sellers) could not have led a riot in Orangeburg or anywhere else," said panelist Willis Ham, director of the state Human Affairs Commission. "He didn't believe in violence."
   Sellers was convicted of rioting and jailed for seven months. He was pardoned in 1993 by then-Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr.
   All speakers agreed that race relations have come a long way, but there is still a long road ahead.
   "There are always going to be obstacles. Those who succeed are those who get back up. You must work hard to get half as much," Sellers said. "Sometimes things get so bad, the only thing you can do is smile."
   "I've got to say we've made some improvements," Stroman said. "The sheriff is black; down at the courthouse it used to be all white.
   "But as a group of people, we've got a long way to go -- we can't blame it on the whites," Stroman said. "This is a tough situation."