Today, in honor of Black History Month, we remember the Orangeburg Massacre, which occurred on February 8, 1968 in South Carolina, when highway patrolmen opened fire on black student protesters from South Carolina State, who were trying to integrate a bowling alley. They killed 3 African American students and wounded 33. These were the first student demonstrators killed by the police in the 1960s. 2 days prior, students held a sit-in at the bowling alley. When the police arrested them, hundreds of students arrived from Claflin College and South Carolina State to protest the arrests. As tensions grew, the governor called out the National Guard and Highway Patrol to “keep the order.” 9 cops were charged with deprivation of rights under color of law, but all were acquitted. But one of the student protestors, Cleveland Sellers, was convicted of several riot charges. In 1960, students and others marched through Orangeberg to protest segregation. Police and firefighters attacked them. They arrested 400 and imprisoned them in outdoors in a cattle stockade.
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