If Only These People In Orangeburg SC Knew The Sacrifices Of Those Who Came Before Them

2011



1968



 The Orangeburg Massacre

The Orangeburg massacre was an incident on February 8, 1968, in which nine South Carolina Highway Patrol officers in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into an armed and violent mob protesting local segregation at a bowling alley. Three men were killed and twenty-eight more injured, hitting most of them in their backs. After the shooting stopped, two others were injured by police in the aftermath and one, a pregnant woman, later had a miscarriage due to the beating. The incident pre-dated the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings.

 Persons killed:

• Samuel Hammond Jr., 18
• Delano Herman Middleton, 17
• Henry Ezekial Smith, 19
   

I long for the day in which the "black and white" videos of the Civil Rights Movement go from being used as  a means of reminding the ancestors of those who assaulted us: "YOU all did this to us" over to a basis of the consciousness of those who no longer have to suffer from such indignity today, as a guide on how they should be acting with more dignity.  We have more control over our own behavior than whatever we can hope to achieve by indicting others on past behavior.