On February 8, 1968, around 200 protestors had gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University to protest the segregation of the town's only bowling alley. A bonfire that had been arranged by the protestors was snuffed out by the police. An altercation ensued in which several officers were struck with thrown objects. The officers responded by firing into the crowd, killing three young men, Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding twenty-seven others.
Though this predated the Kent State massacre, and was the first incident of its kind on an American university campus, the Orangeburg massacre received relatively little media coverage. The fact that the victims at Orangeburg were young black men protesting segregation, and that the victims at Kent State were young whites protesting an increasingly unpopular war, sheds some light on the disparity in media coverage.
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Further reading
Watters, Pat and Weldon Rogeau. Events at Orangeburg; a report based on study and interviews in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in the aftermath of tragedy. Southern Regional Council, Atlanta. 1968.
Last updated: 10-15-2005 18:46:07
