The Orangeburg Massacre & America’s Fight for Freedom:
Student Protest As Public Social Conscience
Photographs by
Cecil Williams & Jerry Fryar
When we consider the challenges of creating our respective individual identities and simultaneously structuring group identities as a society, we are exploring to some extent the often conflicting concerns of the autonomy of the individual contrasted with the demands of the larger social unit. The general society constructs regulations and rules by which all within it are expected to abide. But such rules, when applied toward a diverse and highly differentiated cultural amalgam, are not always made equally clear to all members of the group in terms of their justifications for being. For example, we may agree that law enforcement officials require certain kinds of access and discretion that may not be allotted to every citizen. This is not terribly controversial as an observation; however, what may becomecontroversial are the protocols for how law enforcement officials undertake to employ the exceptions madeforthem in order to facilitate sustaining social order and the general peace.
The reality of this social challenge is made more controversial by the intrusion of history and tradition and the employment of social constructions such as “race.” Repairing the socially disruptive invention of “race” requires bringing the processes of our capacity for reasoning to the fore. Before taking any action, each of us generally considers a sequence of options, thus, imbedded within the idea of social “activism”, a term implying some explicit series of “actions” taken in opposition to (in a given context) some form of social injustice (for example), it is important to realize that our thoughts precedingany action are themselves an “act.” Therefore, on the most fundamental level, “thinking” IS “acting”. If we accept the foregoing idea, then, thinking “well”; that is to say, with clarity, coherence, and purposiveness, is a potentially beneficial action for all involved. But our thinking is often clouded by the inadvertent incorporation of social constructs of race as if this invention is fundamentally wedded to our individual senses of identity.
By necessity, our personal identities are always at least partially oppositional in how they may be conceptualized. I know I am myselfbecause I am able to intuit that I am NOT you(in this instance, a hypotheticalreader of this short essay…that is, until youare an actualreader and, should we happen to meet, we could then communicate our likely disagreements regarding the ideas asserted here, within the essay, in a conversation in person!) or anyone else. An oppositional awareness is natural. However, if we are in a shared space, or are in need of combining resources for our mutual survival, we must be able to move beyond mere oppositional awareness to a collaborative or cooperative mode of beingin our shared world. The realities of political struggles for autonomy develop within the space of how and when we may be able to determine if we must share some form of power. The photographs included in this exhibition offer a consideration of how each of us may communicate our unique views of a shared reality.
The photographic exhibition has undertaken the task of concentrating our collective attention toward the processes of our shared human capacity for reasoning. We hope that this approach will engender new insights into the tragic events of 1968 which occurred in the city of Orangeburg, framing them within a new context. This complicated moment in South Carolina’s past history, and its transformed meaning in our contemporary society and culture, offers us an occasion to reflect upon the sacrifice, social, cultural, political, and legal ramifications of student activism in shaping a better society for all citizens of our state. The I. P. Stanback Museum at South Carolina State University has sought to engender a series of critical conversations around the important role of civic engagement by students and young people in shaping the society in which we live. Of paramount importance is consideration of how the humanities help shape our local, regional, and national social discourse around issues of ethics, equity, empathy, identity, and social change.
In tandem with the exhibition of photographic images documenting events that preceded the Orangeburg Massacre, the Museum has offered a series of colloquia and encouraged the viewing of documentary films, screened to support our focus upon assessing the social, cultural, and historical lessons that may be understood in our present moment, based in an evolving awareness of the complex narrative of the Orangeburg Massacre (which occurred over 50 years ago, on February 8th of 1968), and its aftermath. Documentary photographs by Cecil Williams and Jerry Fryer, representing the events that precipitated the tragic deaths of three students, support our efforts to establish a discourse on the past and its impact upon contemporary socio-cultural developments. In the humanist process of developing cultural resources for our mutual survival, we must all be able to move beyond mere oppositional awareness to a collaborative or cooperative mode of being in our shared world. All political controversy has its beginning in this space of the division of interests between individuals and the diverse iterations of civic, state, regional, national, and international concerns.
. The overall intention motivating this project has been to establish a catalyst to initiate increased discourse across generations pertaining to the significance of Orangeburg’s tragic event of 1968, and how it has become infused within our contemporary public consciousness. In addition, discussion of the social roles of student activists who serve as a form of public moral conscience should be explored and assessed to understand the benefits that accrue to all of society based on courageous individual demands for greater awareness of human rights.
Posited in this essay is the concept that to some extent, we literally arewhat we think. The exhibition and this catalogue documenting its scope and the actions, ideas, and representations of young people who wished for a better society and some of whom made the ultimate sacrifice seeking to achieve it, offer us all food for thought regarding the kind and character of the society we seek to leave for future generations.
FM
Images from:
The Orangeburg Massacre & America’s Fight for Freedom:
Student Protest As Public Social Conscience
Cecil Williams
School Room in Williamsburg County
This image of a library in a severely impoverished and segregated Williamsburg County school documents the conditions in which African-American children in South Carolina were forced to learn under the “separate but equal” system. As is made evident by this image, the segregated school system was inherently unequal, and as a consequence, the legality of the segregationist policy was challenged and eventually defeated.
c. 1960
IPSM 94.01.52
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Thurgood Marshall Speaking at Claflin College
Following the favorable, unanimous Supreme Court Decision in the case of Brown vs Board of Education, Thurgood Marshall is shown here in a triumphant return to South Carolina speaking at Claflin College for the advocacy of equal rights. Local dignitaries including Reverend James Hinton, Clarence Mitchell (Chief of the Washington, DC branch of the NAACP), I.S. Leevy and Reverend Matthew McCollom share the dias with him.
c. 1957
IPSM 94.01.84
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Thurgood Marshall Disembarks the Train at Charleston County
Distinguished advocate and special counsel to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Thurgood Marshall, later the first African-American to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, is depicted here as he arrives in South Carolina to prepare arguments in the case of Briggs vs Elliottwhich was later subsumed with Brown vs Board of Educationand four other cases before the highest court in the United States. The issue of the inequity of segregated schools was raised in the Briggs vs Elliott case but local court officials in South Carolina upheld the segregationist system, which was later overturned by the actions of the Supreme Court in 1954, transforming forever the relationships between ethnic and racial groups in America. Following the Browndecision, Marshall was appointed to four years on the District Court, by President John F. Kennedy, then was nominated U.S. solicitor general, and two years later, was appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson to serve as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967.
c. 1951
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Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Fred Moore at the Podium in White Hall
Former president of the student body, Fred Moore, stands at the podium in the auditorium of White Hall at South Carolina State College (now demolished), where he had spoken to fellow students regarding civil rights activities. Moore served as student head of the on-campus branch of the NAACP and led student boycotts of businesses in Orangeburg which had terminated or threatened to terminate employees who were members of the NAACP. During this period, according to a special law passed by the South Carolina legislature, membership in the NAACP precluded employment in state or municipal positions supported by public funds. This law was later found to be unconstitutional and was revoked. Students, however, refused to eat food or consume products provided by private firms that had fired or persecuted employees that were NAACP members. Moore’s role in leading student protests led to his expulsion from South Carolina State College approximately two weeks before his graduation. He was awarded his degree in a special, private commencement ceremony given later at Allen University in Columbia, SC.
c. 1956
IPSM 94.01.01
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Student Protestors with an Effigy of President Turner
This photograph of student protestors participating in the ritual lynching of an effigy representing President Benner Turner shows student displeasure with the conservatism of the South Carolina State College administration during this period. Turner’s conviction that the students’ first priority should be their education not political activities conflicted with student involvement in actions supporting social changes initiated by the NAACP. Due to South Carolina State law during this period, faculty members could have been terminated for membership in the NAACP or participation in the organization’s activities. This photograph epitomizes the conflicts and confusion that could be caused as the result of the factionism caused by the “separate but equal” doctrine. President Turner would have had few choices in response to student demands since he reported to an all Caucasian board of trustees. He was ultimately required to remain loyal to those interests which had placed him in position of authority. In fulfilling his responsibilities to his supervisors he created an irreparable breach with his student constituency for whom he was obligated to act as advocate.
c. 1956
IPSM 94.01.21
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Claflin College Students Refused Admission to Segregated Methodist Church
Students, Emmanuel Hixson and Dorothy Vann, both of Claflin College, are shown here as they were being turned away from worship services at Saint Paul’s Methodist Church in Orangeburg by former mayor, Clyde Fair, depicted in this image as he gives the instructions, “This is a segregated church – go worship with your own kind”. This sentiment was popular among many European-American segregationists, and was held as a part of the Southern tradition which advocated the complete social separation of the races, following the PlessySupreme Court decision of 1896, even in religious or civic institutions purportedly created for the good of all humanity. This photograph was published internationally and precipitated the disapproval of many religious organizations at the act of discriminating against would be worshippers on the basis of race.
c. 1961
IPSM 94.01.05
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Massive Demonstration on the Green, Downtown, Orangeburg
Civil Rights protestors kneel in prayer surrounding the green in downtown Orangeburg and pray for implementation of fairness and equality of treatment before the law within South Carolina. Non-violent protest in combination with thorough court procedures were effective tools in bringing about the transition from a segregated to a desegregated system and a subsequent increase in opportunities for African-Americans. An irony is the fact that this image shows the protestors circumnavigating a monument to the Confederate dead with prayer in order to transform the conditions that followed in the aftermath of the Civil War initiated by individuals such as the figure represented in the monument.
c. 1963
IPSM 94.01.55
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Tactical Evasion of Desegregation in Kress Department Store
This photograph of a lunch counter in the Kress store located in downtown Orangeburg documents the measures taken by local segregationists to resist the abolition of the “separate but equal” doctrine. The seats for the lunch counter benches had been removed to prevent seating blacks and whites together while eating. This tactic was used by members of the local European-American population as an evasive maneuver to resist enforcement of recently approved desegregation legislation. On the whole, resistance to forced desegregation in South Carolina was ingenious and polite but firm and inherently cruel.
c. 1963
IPSM 94.01.50
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Demonstration Against Segregation, Columbia, SC
An anonymous demonstrator carries a sign which proclaims the hypocrisy and irony of the segregationist system that was utilized throughout the South until enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, permitting the use of public accommodations and facilities. Nikita Kruschev, former Premier of the Soviet Union and arch enemy of the capitalist American culture and government, could have been allowed to eat in local restaurants because he was a Caucasian, while American soldiers, patriots and heroes or veterans of American wars who were African-American would not have been given the same privilege. The gross inequity of this situation precipitated the strength of conviction with which many blacks resisted the humiliating injustice of segregation. In the background, Leonard Glover, a demonstrator who was stabbed by a Caucasian assailant while demonstrating against segregation at a Woolworth’s Store in Columbia, carries a sign telling that his blood was shed in the name of desegregation.
c. 1962
IPSM 94.01.42
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Leonard Glover Demonstrates Against Segregation, Columbia, SC
Leonard Glover was a participant in a lunch counter sit-in demonstration at Woolworth’s Department Store in Columbia when he was stabbed by an unknown Caucasian assailant. After his wound healed, Glover adroitly returned to the picket lines to fight against racially motivated acts of terrorism, including demonstrating at the Kress Store in Orangeburg.
c. 1960s
IPSM 94.01.37
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Strategic Planning Session for the NAACP
Members of the Orangeburg branch of the NAACP are shown in a meeting to discuss methodologies for enhancing the implementation of increased equal opportunities for African-Americans. Identified at this meeting are; standing, left to right: Willie Ludden, former Youth Director of the South Carolina Branch of the NAACP, Ike Williams, and James Sulton: seated, left to right: Grace Brooks-Palmer, Gloria Rackley, Vance Summers, John E. Brunson, and, artist, Arthur Rose, who was among the first to sign the petition against segregation in local Orangeburg schools.
c. 1963
IPSM 94.01.56
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Memorial Service on the 25thAnniversary of the Deaths of Victims of the Orangeburg Massacre
In February of 1968, the worst tragedy of the Civil Rights struggle known to have occurred in South Carolina took place. As the result of an attempt to integrate a local bowling alley in Orangeburg, three students were killed by state troopers on the campus of South Carolina State College in an incident that has become known as the Orangeburg Massacre. This image shows an annual commemorative ceremony which pays homage to the three young men who died fighting for equal treatment under the protection of federal law. Shown here at a memorial service for the three young freedom fighters (from right to left) are Dr. Barbara R. Hatton, former President, South Carolina State University; South Carolina Legislator, Representative Kay Patterson; Dr. Maceo Nance, who served as President of South Carolina State College during the most difficult period leading up to, during and following the Orangeburg Massacre; Dr. Cleveland Sellers, survivor of the Massacre (with son); with other survivors and relatives of survivors of the Orangeburg incident, including John Stroman (extreme left) who, as a student, initiated the integration of the All Star Bowling Lanes facility which precipitated the incidents culminating in the Orangeburg tragedy.
c. 1992
IPSM 94.01.24
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Prelude to the Orangeburg Massacre: A Call for Calm
Dr. Oscar Butler raises his hand in a request to students to calm themselves in their attempt to integrate the local All Star Bowling Alley in Orangeburg. Resistance to this attempt eventually resulted in the deaths of three student protestors.
c. 1968
IPSM 94.01.53
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Shells from the Orangeburg Massacre
The shotgun shells shown in this image were collected in the aftermath of the Orangeburg Massacre in which approximately twenty-seven protestors were wounded and three killed.
c. 1968
IPSM 94.01.44
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Noted Educator, Gives Easter Sunday Address at White Hall Auditorium, South Carolina State College
Native South Carolinian (from Epworth), the mentor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and highly regarded educator and orator, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays is shown here as he gives the annual Easter Sunday address in White Hall to the assembled student body of South Carolina State College. Mays received his B.A. degree from Bates College (Lewiston, Maine), his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago, and numerous honorary degrees from various colleges and universities across the country. Mays taught at South Carolina State College, Morehouse College, where he later served as president (1940-1968), Howard University (where he served as dean of the School of Religion from 1934-1940), and was the first African-American to serve as president of the school board of Atlanta, GA. Mays is included on the Schomburg Honor Roll of Race Relations as one of the twelve most outstanding Americans of African descent who has made meaningful contributions in this area.
c. 1967
IPSM 94.01.58
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by Giordano Angeletti
Cecil Williams
Untitled (colored)
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
2005
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by
Giordano Angeletti
JERRY FRYER
Student Dissidents (colored)
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1968
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by
Giordano Angeletti
JERRY FRYER
Student Dissidents (colored)
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1968
JERRY FRYER
Smitty
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1968
JERRY FRYER
Student Dissidents (colored)
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1968
JERRY FRYER
Student Dissidents (colored)
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1968
JERRY FRYER
Candid Image of Henry Smith (Smitty) and RoseMarie
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1967
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by
Giordano Angeletti
JERRY FRYER
Portrait of Student Marie Hamburg
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1968
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by
Giordano Angeletti
JERRY FRYER
Excerpts from Student Life (1967)
Digital photographic print
20” x 30”
1968
Images enlarged and digitally enhanced by
Giordano Angelettire)