Orangeburg Massacre

[marble falls]

Last edited Sat Apr 18, 2020, 05:20 PM - Edit history (1)

Orangeburg Massacre

History.com Editors

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/orangeburg-massacre





The Orangeburg Massacre occurred on the night of February 8, 1968, when a civil rights protest at South Carolina State University (SC State) turned deadly after highway patrolmen opened fire on about 200 unarmed black student protestors. Three young men were shot and killed, and 28 people were wounded. The event became known as the Orangeburg Massacre and is one of the most violent episodes of the civil rights movement, yet it remains one of the least recognized.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation had officially ended in much of the South, but it hadn’t changed the attitudes of some of its white citizens. Many blacks were still persecuted and discriminated against by whites.

One such person was Harry Floyd, owner of All-Star Bowling Triangle bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He claimed his bowling alley was exempt from segregation laws since it was private property. But Orangeburg’s black community was determined to change his mind.

<snip>

On February 5, 1968, a small group of students from both SC State and Claflin went to All-Star Bowling Lanes to protest its whites-only policy. Floyd refused them entry and they left peacefully; word of Floyd’s refusal spread across both college campuses like wildfire.

[Karadeniz]

1. Never heard of it! Maybe American history needs to be a two year course. So much to it!

[UniteFightBack]

2. Thanks for this post and bringing to light these American Heros. nt

[appalachiablue]

3. K & R. These are major not obscure actions, people need to know

[Judi Lynn]

4. What a shame someone could bury it so deep most of us never knew. This was a real atrocity. n/t

[tblue37]

5. K&R for visibility. nt

[DAMANgoldberg]

6. I only know about it because of proximity...

Orangeburg is 135 miles South of Charlotte, and I have been to Orangeburg numerous times in a truck and a private vehicle as it's on the way to Charleston, Hilton Head, Savannah, and points south.

Cleveland Sellers son, Bakari, is currently with CNN and lives in Columbia with his family. He does live shots and hits regularly from here (Spectrum News studio primarily on Morehead). Mr. Sellers has thrown his support for Kamala Harris.

I wanted to know as much as I could about black history within reasonable driving distance of Charlotte on both sides of the Carolinas, so I found myself taking to 1st and 2nd hand accounts of major events so I could learn.

Helps that DU as a community really pays attention to things that need to be said and printed that are not in the mainstream for all the colors of the palette called life.