Feb. 8 1968 Orangeburg Massacre in South Carolina

[Valin]

Orangeburg Massacre

The night of February 8th, 1968, three students – Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith, and Delano Middleton (who was still in high school) – were killed by police gunfire on the South Carolina State University campus in Orangeburg. Twenty-seven others were wounded. None of the students were armed and most were shot in their backs or the soles of their feet.

Tensions between students and police had gradually escalated over a period of three nights, following efforts by students to desegregate All Star Bowling in downtown Orangeburg. The bowling alley was owned by Harry K. Floyd, who claimed that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not apply to his establishment.

Although many black and white members of the community had tried to persuade Floyd to integrate, he refused. Appeals to the US Justice Department also went unheeded, and on the evening of Monday, February 5th, a group of roughly 40 SCSU students, led by senior John Stroman, entered the alley. Floyd denied them the right to play, and after the police arrived, the students returned to campus.

 

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