Footsteps across 40 years - Today's students pay tribute to those who stood up in '68

The sounds of South Carolina State University students' voices rang out in a chorus of protest Thursday as they encircled the All Star Bowling Lanes sign.

"No Justice, No Peace!"

"Integration not Segregation"

"What do we want? Freedom? When do we want it? Now!"

"Let us Bowl!"

• Video  CLICK HERE to watch video footage from the mock protest held at the All Star Triangle Bowling Ally.

And when voices did not resound, the signs they carried proclaimed loud and clear the message.

"Justice, we want now,"

"I Deserve the Right to Bowl!"

"What do I have to do, bleach myself?"

"Freedom is knocking."

About 18 SCSU students marched in a mock protest of the Russell Street bowling alley's 1968 segregation. The event was part of the observance of the 40th anniversary of the Orangeburg Massacre. It was sponsored by the South Carolina State University Student Government Association.

The bowling alley became the focal point of protests that would lead to the killing of three students and the serious wounding of 28 others by state police on Feb. 8, 1968. Students picketed the then-segregated All Star Bowling Lanes before the fatal incident later on campus.

"We remember the day that led to that fateful night of Thursday Feb. 8, 1968," SCSU senior and professional language major Deven Anderson read as mock protesters circled round about. "The students of what was then-South Carolina State College and Claflin College picketed and demanded for equality. We have learned that picketing was an effective non-violent tool used in the civil rights movement. We understand that just as the children of Israel marched around the walls of Jericho and, as those walls came tumbling down, the American walls of segregation, discrimination and the laws of Jim Crow are now tumbled and now lay in ruins."

SCSU SGA President Jeremy Rogers said the mock protest was all about remembering those who lost their lives in the events and to take pride in what they sacrificed for equality.

"Today it is not as bad, but we are still fighting the same fight that they did," Rogers said. "We should never forget what they did and fight for what is right."

Rogers said the idea started out as a simple discussion among the SGA members, eventually leading to the desire to commemorate the events in a more solemn manner.

"We hope this does not hurt anyone, but we just want them to remember that this is what really happened back then," he said.

Anderson said the 40-year observance is testament that the events of that day have not been forgotten and can create conversation and dialogue among those who may not be familiar with what happened in 1968.

"In general, I believe we have come a long way, but we still have yet a ways to go," he said. "A lot of advances have been made. As far as the campus, I think the students are aware of the past."

Valencia L. Johnson, a 20-year old SCSU junior English education major, said she wrote an extended essay on the Orangeburg Massacre her senior year in high school.

"I talked to students who were in their dorms when it happened," Johnson said. "They heard the chaos outside."

Her desire to participate in the mock protest was an attempt to keep alive the "spirit of the event" and its "historical significance."

"It is a great point in African-American history, especially in the state of South Carolina," Johnson said.

Oxzavia Finley, an SCSU freshman elementary education major, said his participation in the protest is part of history.

"This means so much to us as a people, not just as black people or white people, but as people in general," he said. "We all should have equal rights. No matter who you are, we have our rights."

Mayor's words

Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller, who stopped by briefly to observe the proceedings with Orangeburg Mayor Pro Tem Bernard Haire, described the events of 1968 as "monumental."

"It was a very unfortunate event that happened in Orangeburg," Miller said. "It should and could have been avoided."

Miller said Orangeburg has come along way and has a lot of positive things to boast about.

"Our City Council is a good example of races getting along together," he said. "We don't stop and fight. We realize that we have to work together and coexist for the betterment of everybody. I think Orangeburg is in a lot better shape than people outside give us credit for. I have felt like that for a long time."

The Rev. Sammie Gordon, owner of the Russell Street GFL Uptown Sports Store located near the bowling alley, said a driving force for him locating a business there in April 2007 was its historical significance and a desire to keep the shopping area alive.

"It is a wonderful area," he said. "It is a historical area."

The bowling alley closed its doors in August 2007. The business has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996.

Gordon, who arrived to Orangeburg in 1965, says he thinks Orangeburg has changed "quite a bit" since 1968.

"I don't see any animosity," he said. "I raised my family here. People are more educated and they understand better what it was. Everybody is trying to develop this community."

Bonfire

After picketing at the bowling alley, students continued their mock protesting by starting a bonfire on Mitchell Hall Field near Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

• Video CLICK HERE to see survivor, Dr. Cleveland Sellars share his story about the events in 1968 which led to the death of three S.C. State College students at Thursday's bonfire.

Students walked around the smoldering bonfire holding similar signs while other students were discussing what to do as a college for the observance of February as Black History Month.

Interrupting the conversation of the students was Cleveland Sellers, who was the only person imprisoned as a result of the Feb, 8, 1968, incident. He represented the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was convicted of inciting the riot that preceded the shootings. He was later pardoned.

Sellers told the students what transpired on the night of Feb. 8, 1968. He related how Orangeburg was segregated for years preceding the incidents of 1968.

"The students were organized for a peaceful protest in which they were unarmed," Sellers said. "They figured they would build a bonfire and around that bonfire they would build morale and get their spirits up."

He related that the incident began on Monday Feb. 5, when the NAACP youth chapter began a protest at the bowling alley.

A larger group in an attempt to have a greater impact went back the next night and some were arrested at the bowling alley.

"It was more than about the bowling alley. It was about segregation ... in the city of Orangeburg. There were efforts made, but those efforts were denied."

Accounts of Feb. 8, 1968, record that students at South Carolina State built a bonfire.

As police attempted to put out the bonfire, an officer was injured by a thrown piece of banister.

The police believed they were receiving small weapons fire during the incident, but evidence that police were being fired on was inconclusive, and there is no evidence that protesters were armed or fired on officers.

"You could see them with their white hats on," Sellers said. "They had their weapons drawn, shotguns, pistols and rifles. They opened fire. Darkness turned to light and then there was a BOOM! The smell of gunpowder. People being hit and you could actually hear people saying, 'Help me please, I am hurt, I am injured."

Killed in the gunfire were Henry Smith, Samuel Hammond and Delano Middleton. Smith and Hammond were SCSU students; Middleton, a local high school student, was 17.

"How would they feel about the changes that have occurred since they stood up and were shot down for what they believed was right, fair and just?" Kirsten Pratt, 19, freshman business management major, read before the diminishing flames of a bonfire. "Well, I submit they are still here today. They are in the family that loved them so much, the friends that stood by their sides, and the people who are associated with South Carolina State University."

Pratt said that the Orangeburg Massacre, so named by the title of a book about the incident, is for those who stand for justice everywhere. She questioned how some today do not consider the event a "massacre."

"Just the mere shooting at young black Americans because of their resistance against being treated lesser than what someone else considers worthy is a massacre in itself," she said.

Sellers said the past 40 years have been one of "making whole" those who were damaged during the time period.

"There are whole families here during that time who still carry that scar," he said. "We need to move in the right direction so we can begin to remove that scar."

Sellers said Orangeburg has come a long way toward healing from that incident. He recognizes its efforts to reconcile.

"I am very proud of that," he said. "I still think there was an effort made early on to put a kind of veil of secrecy and cover up and the state still has not responded to that."

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551.