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The Orangeburg Massacre
On a bitterly cold February night in rural Orangeburg, SC, a student protest over a whites-only bowling alley ended with three black teenagers shot dead by police.
Students from the city's two black colleges had marched peacefully for several days at All Star Bowling Lanes -- segregated in spite of federal civil rights laws. But when state police arrived, violence erupted.
On Feb. 8, Gov. Robert E. McNair ordered the troopers to the South Carolina State College campus, where students rallied at a bonfire. Protesters threw objects. A banister rail struck a policeman. Without warning, nine white highway patrolmen fired into the crowd of 200 students, killing three -- one a 17-year-old high school student -- and injuring 27 others. |