On 8 February 1968, the Orangeburg massacre took place in South Carolina when police opened fire on Black South Carolina State students, killing three and wounding 28 during a wave of protests by Black students against an illegally segregated bowling alley. It was the first incident in which student demonstrators were killed by police in the 1960s, but is much less well-known than the Kent State killings of white students.
The All-Star Bowling Lanes was refusing to serve Black customers, despite the banning of segregation in 1964, and so protests by Black students began on February 5. When police got involved, rather than enforce the law or arrest the racist business owner, they arrested 15 demonstrators and brutally beat several young women.
On February 8, over 100 students assembled on the college campus around a bonfire. After a police officer was hit by a flying object, nine officers then opened fire on the crowd with live ammunition. The demonstrators tried to flee, and many were killed or injured as they ran away: all but two of the 31 victims “had been shot in the back, side, or through the soles of their feet,” according to Reid Toth.
One of the survivors, Robert Lee "Dooley" Davis recounted the last words of his friend, Sam Hammond:
"Sam asked me, he said, 'Dooley, do you think I’m going to live?' I said, 'Sam, you’re going to be all right, buddy.' And the next time I look over there, he was dead. I took my hand and put it over his face like this to close his eyes, because he died with his eyes open."
Henry Smith and Delano Middleton were the others who died that day.
The governor and the media, including the Associated Press, falsely claimed that there was a two-way gunfight between demonstrators and police.There were legal cases after the massacre, although none of the killer police were convicted of any crime. The only person who was jailed for the events was Cleveland Sellers, a young Black member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
The Orangeburg Massacre - WCH | Stories
#OrangeburgMassacre #All-StarBowlingLanes #Segregation