Sunday, December 16, 2012
Henry Ezekiel Smith, Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., and Delano Herman Middleton, February 8, 1968
Henry Ezekiel Smith, Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., and Delano Herman Middleton were South Carolina University students who were killed by police during a civil rights protest on February 8, 1968 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Smith and Hammond were both 18 while Middleton was a mere highschool student, but their courage on that fateful day is still remembered. The students were part of a protest in integrating the All-Star Bowling Lanes where the owner did not want to upset his White customers by allowing Blacks to patronize his business. South Carolina Highway patrol fired into a crowd of Claflin College and South Carolina University students to break up the crowd that was protesting his mistreatment of Blacks. This incident came to be known as the "Orangeburg Massacre".