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Forgotten martyrs of the Orangeburg MASSACRE By Monica Moorehead Few people have heard of the 1968 Orangeburgmassacre. One hastosearch highand low tofind information on this event, com pared to other civil-rights devel opments during the 19605. For example, whole books hmboenwriwenont:n;rd‘Sdma to Montgomery, Ala. in 1965 and the Birmingham, Ala. church bombings in 1963. What was this massacre and what is its significance for to day? Inspired hy sit-ins First of all, it is important to go back some eight years ear lier, to Feb. 8, 1960. The sit-in protests initiated by the African-American stu dent movement against racist segregation began in Greens boro, N.C. These protests, which implemented the non violent tactics developed dur ing the 1950 s in the Montgom ery bus boycott, spread throughout the South, includ ing South Carolina. In central South Carolina is the small city of Orangeburg, home to South Carolina State University, a predominantly Black public college. The im- African Americans in Augusta history 1892, Mauge Street Grammar . School founded 1892 - Mauge Street Grammar School founded on April 1. Prior to its opening, there were few public schools in Augusta for blacks. Among its early faculty staff were Prof. A.R. Johnson, principal, and the Rev. Silas X. Floyd, assistant princi pal. Ursula E. Collins was one of the first teachers. All three eventually had Augus ta schools named after them in the mod ern era. ; In 1899, the Mauge Street school burned down. The students’ education was not interrupted, however, because Lucy C. Laney, whoso campus was just across the =N T e o 17 . | SON 1: v 9 . TR %’/ . b " / // ¥ ‘\ b 07N \ p " 7N '”" 2 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) member Cleveland Sellers (center) was wounded in the Orangeburg violence. Here Seliers is shown in Atlanta in 1967, a year before the incident. Stokely Carmichael (now Kwame Touré) is pictured second from left. pact of all the sit-in protests in Greensboro did not escape Orangeburg. South Carolina State students organized a pro test of athousand people against racism in February 1960. As a result, the racist au thoritiesarrested 350 students, placing them in an open-air stockade in the rain. In a city that even today numbers no more than 14,000, this was a significant demonstration. In one account, the students sang patrioticsongsand held a prayer meetingduringtheir detention. 1898, Dr. James E. Carter Sr. beco‘mes first licensed dentist 1898 - James E. Carter Sr. becomes the first licensed dentist practicing in Augusta. He. prac ticed from an office on Broad Street on a lot now occupied by the Ramada Plaza Hotel. The office burned in a 1906 fire and Dr. Carter opened a new office at the intersection of Fifth and Broad streets. 1898 - Pilgrim Benevolent Aid Association is conceived at the Spring Hill Baptist Church in Blythe, Ga. Solomon W. Walker, the Rev. Thomas J.Hornsby, ThomasJ. Walker, Walter S. Hornsby, and Dr. J.C. Collier collaborated on the project. It I§3l Nomwislnt Coveilnating O onviolent inating Com mittee was founded. Its roots sprang from the sit-in experi ences in the South among stu dents from mostly Black col leges. During the early days of SNCC, its main political orien tation was to conduct mass struggles in the South as well as the North for basic demo cratic rights within the frame work of bourgeois legality. Nonviolent resistanceto the vio lent reactions from the white 1898, Pilgrim Life formed AUGUSTA FOCUS BLACK HISTORY SUPPLEMENT © WINTER 1998 police and the repressive state in general was ingrained into every SNCC organizer whowas sent toorganizeothers on Black oolhpcnmpugl. But that political orientation shifted in a progressive direc tion in May 1966 when Stokely Carmichael (now Kwame Toure) became the chairperson of SNCC and raised a new slo gan: “Black Power.” This slo gan meant many things tomany cakingnridedtrons's Al . tage to challenging the racist sta- Black Power movement One thing is for sure. The “Black Power” era electrified the Black masses in the coun try and especially on Black col lege campuses and sent shock waves throughout the capital ist government. At South Carolina State Uni versity, the students had orga nized the Black Awareness Co ordinating Committee. Itwasa militant group that countered the more moderate program of the NAACP campus chapter and was a loose affiliate of SNCC. The BACC worked closely with SNCC field official Cleve land Sellers on asuccessful boy cott of classes to protest reac tionary campus rules and the dismissal of progressive white teachers. OnFeb. 5, 1968, the students protested against a lily-white bowling alley. The students organizedanotherprotest when white city officials refused to meet their demands. On Feb. 7, the students be gan to rebel in the streets by attacking police cars. The re bellionlasted untilthe nextday. The police, along with the e . PR P o i . A e 2z X AL oL SR o DR il S E S, o 7 2o vfi;‘z "} T . o 5 . # s RN " e NN ot sz bv g T % R Y e t» i P I P W RNE e x 5 % ')*‘2'!' ‘. ffifi T S Ayl : B s ” Y i ¥ S g* s £ it L ‘,-’ . 8 b 118 National Guard, were called in to occupy the campus. The police began to fire upon the unarmed students as they sat ~around a bonfire seeking warmth. Three students were S ;&dfyfiem o news accounts circulated the false _hood that a student had fired ‘on a police officer. No gun was .ever produced. City and state officialsblamed Sellers and the BACC, already under FBI surveillance, for “in citing a riot.” Sellers was ar rested and indicted on these bogus charges, but was never brought to trial. After a federal investigation, nine members of the state po were later acquitted on the fed eral charges of depriving dem onstrators of their constitu tional rights. These acquittals gave racist cops throughout the South the green light to murder in cold blood any oppressed person who fought back. The Orangeburg massacre exposed the terrorist role of the state in capitalist society of keeping the most oppressed dis enfranchised. Butitalsoshows how social consciousness is el evated by the struggle. The BACC was much influ enced by SNCCaswell asby the teachings of Malcolm X. The lessons of the Watts rebellion in 1965 and other uprisings were not lost on these heroic students. ~ Theirstrugglescan’tbefound in the mainstream history books. But they will never be forgotten and will inspire fu ture generations. This article is reprinted from the Feb. 9, 1995 issue of Worker’s World, page seven. - Dent’s Undertaking Establishment founded 1888 - Dent’s Undertak ing Establishment is founded. It is the first black-owned funeral businessin Augusta, Dent’s Undertaking Estab lishment was founded by John and Julia Dent in a wooden building on the cor ner of Ninth and Barnes streets. In 1900, the couple moved their business to its present location at 930 D’Antignac St. 7