50th anniversary of civil rights shooting in Orangeburg
ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP/WOLO) – South Carolina State University is marking 50 years since white troopers opened fire on black students in a civil rights protest by hearing from the son of a black man originally charged with causing a riot.
ABC Columbia has a crew at the ceremony and will have more on how the current administration, students and community are keeping the legacy of the three students who were killed alive.
Former State Representative Bakari Sellers will speak at the Orangeburg campus at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center, named for the three students killed in the shooting at the end of three nights of protests over a segregated bowling alley.
Twenty-seven others were hurt, some shot in the back.
The troopers said they heard gunfire, but no weapons were found on students. Nine troopers faced federal charges but were acquitted. The FBI has refused to reopen an investigation.
Cleveland Sellers sent to prison on an inciting a riot conviction. He was pardoned 25 years later.
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