Orangeburg Massacre: Three Students Killed by Police
South Carolina Highway Patrol officers opened fire on a group of mostly Black students at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg on February 8, 1968, killing three young men and wounding twenty-seven others. The students had been protesting the segregation of a local bowling alley. Samuel Hammond Jr., Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith were shot primarily in the back and sides as they ran from the gunfire, evidence that contradicted police claims of returning fire from an armed crowd. Nine officers were tried for the shootings and acquitted by an all-white jury. Cleveland Sellers, a civil rights activist and the only person convicted in connection with the event, received a pardon from the governor in 1993. The Orangeburg Massacre occurred two years before the better-known Kent State shootings but received far less national attention, a disparity that activists attributed to the victims' race.
February 8, 1968
58 years ago
Key Figures & Places
American Civil Rights Movement
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Orangeburg massacre
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Orangeburg, South Carolina
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South Carolina State University
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racial segregation
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Civil rights movement
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Orangeburg Massacre
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South Carolina State University
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Racial segregation
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Orangeburg, South Carolina
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Racismo en Estados Unidos
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