Orangeburg: Two Historically Black Universities and the 1968 Massacre
Orangeburg sits in the Midlands, along the Edisto River about 40 miles south of Columbia. The city was settled in the 1730s as part of the Orangeburg Township, and the name honors William IV, Prince of Orange. During the Civil War, Union forces occupied and largely destroyed the town in 1865. Orangeburg served as the county seat of Orangeburg County and retains an antebellum downtown grid.
South Carolina State University, founded in 1896 as a land-grant institution for African American students, enrolls roughly 3,000 students on a campus in the city. Claflin University, established in 1869 by the United Methodist Church, sits adjacent to SC State on a historic campus anchored by Tingley Memorial Hall. Together the two institutions have made Orangeburg a center of historically Black higher education in South Carolina.
On February 8, 1968, South Carolina Highway Patrol officers fired on a crowd of students from SC State who had been protesting segregation at a local bowling alley. Three students were killed and 27 wounded in what became known as the Orangeburg Massacre, an event that received far less national attention than the Kent State shootings of 1970 but represented an earlier and deadlier confrontation between state authority and civil rights protest. A memorial on the SC State campus commemorates the victims.
Escort websites covering Orangeburg are reviewed and listed on Escortservice.com. The platform works as a directory only. It does not arrange appointments, confirm regulatory standing, or act as an intermediary. Users must be 21 or older.
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Orangeburg sits in the Midlands, along the Edisto River about 40 miles south of Columbia. The city was settled in the 1730s as part of the Orangeburg Township, and the name honors William IV, Prince of Orange. During the Civil War, Union forces occupied and largely destroyed the town in 1865. Orangeburg served as the county seat of Orangeburg County and retains an antebellum downtown grid.
South Carolina State University, founded in 1896 as a land-grant institution for African American students, enrolls roughly 3,000 students on a campus in the city. Claflin University, established in 1869 by the United Methodist Church, sits adjacent to SC State on a historic campus anchored by Tingley Memorial Hall. Together the two institutions have made Orangeburg a center of historically Black higher education in South Carolina.
On February 8, 1968, South Carolina Highway Patrol officers fired on a crowd of students from SC State who had been protesting segregation at a local bowling alley. Three students were killed and 27 wounded in what became known as the Orangeburg Massacre, an event that received far less national attention than the Kent State shootings of 1970 but represented an earlier and deadlier confrontation between state authority and civil rights protest. A memorial on the SC State campus commemorates the victims.
Escort websites covering Orangeburg are reviewed and listed on Escortservice.com. The platform works as a directory only. It does not arrange appointments, confirm regulatory standing, or act as an intermediary. Users must be 21 or older.
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