Orangeburg Massacre: Who was responsible for the

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Orangeburg Massacre: Who was
responsible for the violence?
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Overview: It was February 8, 1968 and Orangeburg, South Carolina was a night filled with anger and
frustration. Twenty-seven students were shot and 3 young men died from the incident only in a matter
of seconds. What led to the massacre was a demonstration at a bowling alley that did not admit
Blacks. Two-hundred students gathered around a bonfire built on a campus street, only to find it to be
smothered by the police. Some students retaliated by throwing rocks and bottles at the officers. The
students eventually built another bonfire when the patrolmen left and that was when the trouble
started. Police returned to the scene to put the fire out, only this time, someone hit a patrolman with a
banister post and more objects were thrown. Fires rang and that was when the true chaos began.
So… Who was responsible for the violence?
THE DOCUMENTS:
Document A: Student protest (picture)
Document B: Details of the shooting
Document C: Police fight back (picture)
Document D: Shooting chart
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Background Essay:
Events surrounding the Orangeburg Massacre
The Orangeburg massacre was an incident on
February 8, 1968, in which local policemen in
Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of
young people who were protesting local
segregation at a bowling alley. They killed three
and injured twenty-eight hitting most of them in their
backs. After the shooting stopped, two others were
injured by police in the aftermath and one, a
pregnant woman, later had a miscarriage due to the
beating, which brought the total up to 4 dead and
31 injured (although most only list 3 dead and 27
injured). The incident pre-dated the Kent State
shootings and Jackson State killings. In the days
leading up to February 8, 1968, about 200 mostly
student protesters gathered on the campus of
South Carolina State University (located in the city
of Orangeburg) to protest the segregation of the All
Star Bowling Lane (now called All-Star Triangle
Bowl), on US 301 (now SC 33). The bowling alley
was owned by the late Harry K. Floyd. That night,
students started a bonfire.
outside Black Power agitators, but subsequent
investigations showed this allegation to be without
basis and untrue. At the trial, the first federal trial of
police officers for using excessive force at a
campus protest, all nine defendants were acquitted.
The activist Cleveland Sellers was the only person
convicted and imprisoned (7 months) as a result of
the incident. He represented the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and
was convicted of having incited the riot that
preceded the shootings. In 1973 he wrote The
River of No Return: The Autobiography of a Black
Militant and the Life and Death of SNCC in 1973.
Twenty-five years later, Sellers was officially
pardoned.
As police attempted to put out the fire, an officer
was injured by a thrown piece of banister. The
police said they believed they were under attack by
small weapons fire. Protesters insisted that they did
not fire at police officers, but did hurl various
objects (and insults) at the police. Evidence that
police were being fired on was inconclusive. There
was no evidence that protesters were armed or had
fired on officers. Officers fired into the crowd, killing
three young men: Samuel Hammond, Delano
Middleton and Henry Smith, and wounding twentyseven others. Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond
were SCSU students; Delano Middleton, a local
high school student, was seventeen. Hammond
had wanted to become a teacher and Smith, who
was known as "Smitty" on campus, mentioned in a
college questionnaire that his life goals were simply
"happiness and success.”At a press conference the
following day, Governor Robert E. McNair said the
event was "one of the saddest days in the history of
South Carolina." McNair blamed the deaths on
After prison, Sellers earned a master's in education
from Harvard University and later a doctorate in
history from the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro. He became director of the AfricanAmerican Studies program at the University of
South Carolina. In 2008 he was selected as
president of Voorhees College in Denmark, South
Carolina.
Document A
Source: Orangeburg, South Carolina, February 6, 1968. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press.
Content notes: Tyrone Caldwell, a student at South Carolina State College, shook his finger at law officers
after arrests were made when black students were barred from an all-white, private bowling alley in
Orangeburg, South Carolina, February 6, 1968. Windows were smashed, cars overturned, and police
hospitalized before the crowd dispersed.
Document Analysis
1. Who is the man in the middle pointing at?
2. What would be a good title for this picture?
3. What is the main idea of this picture?
4. What is the significance of the students protesting outside the bowling ally?
5. How does this document help explain the anger and frustration at South Carolina State?
Document B
Source: The Orangeburg Massacre, Jack Bass & Jack Nelson, Mercer University Press
Altogether, there were 66 state patrolmen, backed up by 45 National Guardsmen armed with M-1 rifles and fixed
bayonets. In addition, some of the 25 SLED agents in the area, several members of the Orangeburg’s 28-man
police force, and several sheriffs’ deputies were nearby. At that moment of the ultimate confrontation there were
about as many lawmen and Guardsmen as there were students. In addition, 61 other state patrolman and 395
other national Guardsmen were on duty in Orangeburg that night. Macao Nance, the state college president.
Later observed, “With the police power on hand, they could of arrested the entire college if they wanted to.” Some
students chanted “your mama’s a whore; your mama’s a whore.” Some patrolmen repeatedly raised and lowered
their weapons as though taking aim”. The patrolman shotguns were loaded with deadly buckshot use to kill deer
and heavy game. Suddenly a carbine fired, and then several shots fired into the air in rapid succession by
patrolman. Apparently as a warning. Most of the students, still scattered all the way back to Lowman Hall, turned
to run. Some held up their hands and others dropped to the ground. Almost simultaneously a volley of a shotgun
blasts and crack-crack-crack of a .38 caliber pistol caught them in a cross fire. Other students ran and crawled in
panic ad buckshot continued to riddle the area. Some hid behind trees and utility poles and others behinds trash
cans.
1. What is the Author of this document most upset about?
2. What is the main idea of paragraph two?
3. What evidence is there that violence was to about to happen that was large in scale?
4. How does this document C help answer the question. Who was responsible for the violence at Orangeburg?
Document C
Source: South Carolina State College in Orangeburg on February 8, 1968. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press
Content Notes: Two black demonstrators killed in the Orangeburg Massacre lie on the ground at the edge of
South Carolina State College in Orangeburg on February 8, 1968. Following three days of protests, which
began when blacks were barred from entering a bowling alley by the proprietor, state police and national
guardsmen confronted demonstrators. Three students were killed and 27 wounded.
Documents Analysis
1. Why did the shooting begin at South Carolina State in 1968?
2. Would you use the word massacre to describe this photo, why or why not?
3. In this photo the protesters were standing outside the bowling ally. Do you think this is a good way for
Americans to protest for equal rights? Why or why not?
4. What details in this photo support that the police created or prevented violence?
Document D
Source: diagram of the approximate location of the wounded students, The Orangeburg Massacre, Jack Bass & Jack Nelson, Mercer
University Press
Content notes: This diagram illustrates the approximate location of all the wounded students and all defendant
highway patrolman at the time the patrolman opened fire of February 8th 1968. The location of Samuel
Hammond at the time (number 12) is not shown because there is no evidence of his location at the time he
was shot. Hammond died shortly after is arrival at Orangeburg Hospital, but he had managed, with assistance
to reach the front of Lowman Hall before he collapsed.
The location of the highway patrolman is based in most cases on their statements to the FBI. The locations of
the patrolman Russell and Lanier are based on maps they marked that were attached to their statements. The
locations of the students are based on trial testimony, interviews, and other evidence. All students who testified
marked their precise locations on a map at the trial.
Document Analysis
1. Where were the patrolmen located in this illustration?
2. Where were the patrolmen located in this illustration?
3. What generalization could you make from this chart about the violence at Orangeburg?\
4. How does this document help explain the events of February 8th 1968 at Orangeburg?
Bucketing-Getting to Write
Bucketing
Look over all the documents and organize them into your final buckets. Write final buckets labels under each
bucket and place the letters of the document in the buckets where they belong. It is okay to put a document in
more then one bucket. Remember, your buckets are going to become your body paragraphs
Thesis Development and Roadmap
On the chickenfoot below, write your thesis and your roadmap. Your thesis is always an opinion and answers
the mini-Q questions. The roadmap is created from your bucket labels and lists the topic areas you will
examine In order to prove your thesis
Student Mini-Q Lined Paper
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