February 8, 1968: The Orangeburg Massacre

February 8, 1968: Officers of the South Carolina Highway Patrol fire into a crowd of about 200 people protesting racial segregation at All-Star Bowling Lanes in Orangeburg, South Carolina. There were 28 people hit, and 3 of them died.

The segregation in question was not at the bowling alley. It was on the campus of the historically black South Carolina State University. Most of the demonstrators were students, and most of those shot were hit in the back as they ran from the gunfire.

Samuel Hammond Jr., 18 years old, and Henry E. Smith, 19 were both SCSU students. Delano Middleton, 17, was not: He was a student at nearby Wilkinson High School, sitting on the steps of the freshman dormitory. He was waiting for the end of his mother's work shift. Hammond, Smith and Middleton were killed.

Left to right: Henry E. Smith,

Samuel Hammond Jr. and Delano Middleton.

The police, all of them white, claimed that one of the black demonstrators had fired a gun at them. No evidence of this, aside from their biased testimony, has ever been found.

Governor Robert McNair, a Democrat who had previously been hailed as pro-education by both races, blamed "Black Power outside agitators." He was soon shamed into working to defuse racial tensions. At the time, State law prohibited him from seeking a 2nd consecutive term. Nevertheless, he never ran for public office again.

The federal government brought charges against 9 State patrolmen. All 9 were acquitted. The University's new 3,200-seat sports arena opened mere hours before the shooting, and was soon renamed for the victims: The Smith–Hammond–Middleton Memorial Center (or "The SHM Center"). It is still in use.

This was the first killings of protestors by police on a college campus -- unless you count the bigots committing insurrection at the University of Mississippi in 1962. But there was little media coverage of the event. The victims were all black, and followed not just several race riots over the last 4 years in which many more people were killed, but also the Tet Offensive, which was still dominating national television news coverage.

Even if there had been widespread media coverage, events in the coming weeks would have overshadowed it: President Lyndon Johnson nearly losing the New Hampshire Primary to Senator Eugene McCarthy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy getting into the Presidential race, LBJ getting out of it, Martin Luther King being assassinated, the protests at Columbia University in New York (in which nobody died), and RFK being assassinated, all within 4 months of the Orangeburg Massacre.

In contrast, 2 years later, when 4 students were killed at Kent State University, they were all white, and that got people's attention.

The bowling alley, later renamed All-Star Triangle Bowl, closed in 2007, due to the financial difficulties of the family that had run it for the entirety of its existence. That same year, McNair died; a week later, so did his wife; a month later, so did their daughter; and a month after that, so did their son.

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February 8, 1968 was a Thursday. Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA that day:

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the San Diego Rockets, 106-102 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). The Rockets moved to Houston in 1971. The Bullets became the Capital Bullets in 1973, the Washington Bullets in 1974, and the Washington Wizards in 1997.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons, 131-110 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The San Francisco Warriors beat the Cincinnati Royals, 126-109 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 115-110 at the Seattle Center Coliseum, despite 34 points from Jerry West. Walt Hazzard scored 31 for the Sonics.

And there were 3 games in the American Basketball Association, playing its 1st season:

* The New Jersey Americans beat the Minnesota Muskies, 123-121. Les Hunter led all pro basketball players on the day with 41 points. Bruce Spraggins scored 30 for the Americans, who became the New York Nets (playing on Long Island) in 1968, the New Jersey Nets (in the NBA) in 1977, and the Brooklyn Nets in 2012.

* The Denver Rockets beat the Indiana Pacers, 98-91 at the Indiana Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. In 1974, in anticipation of being let into the NBA, the Denver team changed its name from Rockets to Nuggets.

* And the Anaheim Amigos beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 122-118 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

There were only 2 games in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit; and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.