The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Mary Ann Chastain/The Associated Press South Carolina State University students take part in a re-enactment Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008, of the picketing of a local bowling lanes which lead to the death of three college students and wounding of 28 others in Feb. 1968 as part of a 40th commemoration ceremony of The Orangeburg Massacre in Orangeburg, S.C.

USC Professor Cleveland Sellers walked down a sidewalk of South Carolina State University's campus. He pointed to a square brick building on the horizon.

"That's where I was when it started," Sellers said. "I was trying to get some sleep, and some students started banging on my door, waking me up. They told me they heard gunfire."

Sellers got up, left his dorm and began to walk toward the front of the campus.

"It was quiet and dark at that point," Sellers said. "When I got to the front of the campus, I saw a group of 100 students gathered around a bonfire. On the way I saw cops with guns drawn. I saw a student, Henry Miller, and I went to warn him about the police."

The police with guns drawn had gathered on campus because a policeman had been hit with a thrown banister.

The gunfire heard earlier was a policeman firing warning shots into the air to ward students away from the bonfire so firefighters could put it out. Other officers began firing when they heard gun shots.

All Sellers had managed to say was "Henry" before the police opened fire. It was the last time Sellers would see Henry Miller alive.

"All I heard was volley after volley, boom bang boom," Sellers said. "I could smell the burnt gunpowder. I tried to move, but I was hit. I went down. We found out afterwards that most of the students had been shot in the back and buttocks."

Sellers had lain on the ground waiting for the fire to stop.

"I tried to start moving again," Sellers said. "I thought if I just lay there, I would get killed. After I moved far enough, I went back and started dragging people to the infirmary."

The date was Feb. 8, 1968. Students were protesting the recent segregation of a local bowling alley, All Star Bowling Lanes. Racial tensions escalated as demonstrations turned to confrontations with police.

Continued...

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