South Carolina State University will commemorate the 57th anniversary of the Orangeburg Massacre on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, beginning at 11 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Auditorium on campus.
Columbia, South Carolina, businessman and SC State alumnus Dr. Willis C. Ham will be the keynote speaker.
Following the ceremony, a brief remembrance will be conducted at the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Legacy Plaza on campus.
About the Orangeburg Massacre
On the night of Feb. 8, 1968, Henry Smith, Samuel Hammond and Delano Middleton were killed when police opened fire on some 200 unarmed Black students who were demonstrating in the name of integrating a local bowling alley. Another 28 protestors were wounded. Smith and Hammond were both enrolled at SC State, and Middleton was a 17-year-old student at Wilkinson High School in Orangeburg.
Each year on Feb. 8, the university honors Smith, Hammond and Middleton, their families and the survivors of what has become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.
At the 2022 commemoration, the university dedicated a new monument enshrined with bronze likenesses of the three men as an additional aspect of the Smith Hammond Middleton Legacy Plaza. The busts were sculpted by internationally known artist Dr. Tolulope Filani, chair of the SC State Department of Visual and Performing Arts.
The university’s convocation center/basketball arena also is named for Smith, Hammond and Middleton.