The Orangeburg Incident

Few states in the Deep South have adapted to the impetus of integration as successfully as South Carolina. In contrast with Alabama and Mississippi, the old Palmetto State weathered changes with relatively little trauma. Thus, it came as a shock in February 1968 when police fired into a mob of Negro college students during a racial disturbance, killing three and wounding 27. The "Orangeburg Massacre" joined Selma and Neshoba County in the litany of racial violence.

Last week in Florence, the trial of nine state highway patrolmen on federal charges of civil rights violations connected with the shooting ended after eight days. The nine were singled out after an FBI investigation of the case. Defense and prosecution testimony produced deeply conflicting versions of the violence. The disturbances were touched off by the refusal of a white bowling alley to admit Negroes. This led to demonstrations by students at South Carolina State College and adjacent Claflin College, both predominantly Negro institutions. Three nights of rioting, arson and sniping followed, and the National Guard was called in. On the fourth night, the shooting occurred.

No Warning. Police witnesses said that 66 highway patrolmen were attacked by a "thundering" mob of 150 to 200 State College students near the campus. The students threw rocks, bottles and other objects and, said some cops, fired guns. Only then did the police open fire. Testified Police Captain Jesse Spell: "I am positive that we couldn't have stopped the group if we hadn't fired."

Not so, according to the students, who said they had merely been walking in a group of some 75 to 100 to watch firemen put out a grass fire. Without warning or provocation, they said, the police opened up in a murderous fusillade of shotgun, pistol and rifle fire. Said Charles W. Hildebrand, a student: "At first I thought they were firing blanks, but then somebody, yelled, 'Oh Lord, I'm hit!' I felt a blow, like a brick, on the back of my leg. I went down and got up and I was hit again, in the hip. I got up and ran, and I was hit under the armpit." Of the 30 victims, 28 were hit in the side or back, including the three dead students. This story was corroborated by a newspaperman, a fireman, and a highway patrolman who did not shoot. No cops were injured by gunfire; only one was hurt, by a flying piece of wood. Indeed, it seemed improbable that a crowd of college students, even if armed, would attack a fully armed group of policemen who also had about 45 National Guardsmen in the area to back them up.

Promoted. Nevertheless, the state refused to investigate the incident, and Governor Robert McNair backed the police. Five of the nine defendants subsequently won promotions, and a federal grand jury refused to indict. Finally, the Justice Department brought misdemeanor charges against the nine. The state provided the cops' defense lawyers, including Assistant Attorney General Joseph C. Coleman.

That South Carolina was on trial, as well as the nine defendants, was made plain by Defense Counsel Frank Taylor, who told the jury: "Your duty is to back up these men." Referring to a SNCC organizer who had been in Orangeburg during the incident, Taylor told the jury to "show our disapproval of militants coming into South Carolina and inciting students." After less than an hour and a half, the jury decided that the highway patrolmen had only done what was expected of them, and found all nine innocent.

The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence reported last week that the ambush triggering the Cleveland riot of July 1968 was a deliberate intensification of racial conflict in America. The upheaval, which began with an ambush by blacks on police, was markedly different from other major outbreaks. Violence was directed toward people, not property, and there were more white casualties than Negro. Three whites and four Negroes were killed, twelve whites and three blacks wounded in the ghetto gunfight. The report blamed the violence on "a small and well-equipped army of black extremists." Fred ("Ahmed") Evans, leader of the ambush, has been sentenced to the electric chair for the deaths of three police and a civilian.

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