• Home
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
Menu

friendscallmep

  • Home
  • Personal Works
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact

P’S BLOG


Subscribe

Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.

We respect your privacy.

Thank you!

Black History 365 | # 242 The Orangeburg Massacre

July 13, 2025

Have you heard about the Orangeburg Massacre in South Carolina February 8th, 1968? Most people know that students were killed at Kent State in 1970, very few know about the murder of students at Jackson State (1970) and even less about South Carolina State College in Orangeburg (1968). On Feb. 8, 1968, 28 students were injured and three were killed — most shot in the back by the state police while involved in a peaceful protest in Orangeburg, South Carolina. One of the by-standers, Cleveland Sellers, was arrested for inciting a riot and sentenced to a year in prison. Later serving as president of Voorhees College, he was the only person to do time. The teenagers who were murdered: Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond, both SCSU students, and Delano Middleton, a local student at Wilkinson High School. When a Black Vietnam War veteran was denied access to a nearby bowling alley, one of the last segregated facilities in town, 300 protesters from South Carolina State College and Claflin University converged on the alley in a non-violent demonstration. Police then beat two female students; and in response the protesters then smashed the windows of white-owned businesses along the route back to campus.  The Governor sent in the state police and National Guard. By the late evening on the same day army tanks and over 100 heavily armed law enforcement officers had cordoned off the campus; 450 more had been stationed downtown. About 200 students surrounded a bonfire on the college campus; a fire truck with armed escort was sent in. Without warning the police shot into the crowd. It lasted less than ten seconds. When it was over, twenty-eight students lay on State’s campus with multiple gun wounds; three teenagers had been killed. Almost all were shot in the back or side. Yeah it’s like that.

Tags Black History 365
Black History 365 | # 241 Aunt Polly Jackson →

Latest Posts

Featured
Jul 13, 2025
Black History 365 | # 242 The Orangeburg Massacre
Jul 13, 2025
Jul 13, 2025
Jun 25, 2025
Black History 365 | # 241 Aunt Polly Jackson
Jun 25, 2025
Jun 25, 2025
Jun 22, 2025
Black History 365 | # 240 Marian Croak
Jun 22, 2025
Jun 22, 2025
Jun 20, 2025
Black History 365 | # 239 Bobby Hutton
Jun 20, 2025
Jun 20, 2025
Jun 19, 2025
Black History 365 | # 238 Juneteenth
Jun 19, 2025
Jun 19, 2025
Jun 15, 2025
Black History 365 | # 237 Dr. Marimba Ani
Jun 15, 2025
Jun 15, 2025
Jun 11, 2025
Black History 365 | 236 Bobby Garnett III
Jun 11, 2025
Jun 11, 2025
Jun 8, 2025
Black History 365 | # 235 Grounded in the Stars Statue in Times Square
Jun 8, 2025
Jun 8, 2025
Jun 7, 2025
Black History 365 | # 234 Jockey Oliver Lewis
Jun 7, 2025
Jun 7, 2025
Jun 6, 2025
Black History 365 | # 233 Lewis Hayden
Jun 6, 2025
Jun 6, 2025