Sixty years ago in 1963, Orangeburg was the scene of some of the largest non-violent protests of the civil rights era. All-but forgotten today, these dramatic events are entirely absent from most historical accounts of America’s civil rights years.
Dr. William C. Hine
But those demonstrations of 1963 did not suddenly emerge from a vacuum. After the U. S. Supreme Court declared segregation in public education unconstitutional in 1954, Orangeburg’s NAACP branch petitioned to desegregate the local public schools in 1955.
The white community responded with the formation of a White Citizens Council and a very real threat of economic reprisals against those who signed the petition.
Gloria Blackwell Rackley reads her letter of dismissal from the Orangeburg District 5 School Board in October 1963. She was a third-grade teacher who had been active in protesting against segregated facilities in Orangeburg.
The Black community then responded with a selective buying campaign against several white-owned businesses. Claflin and S.C. State students supported the NAACP effort.
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Civil rights protesters in 1963 who had been arrested were confined at the County Jail, also known as the “Pink Palace.” Others who were arres…
Months later in April 1956, S.C. State Student Government Association President Fred Moore was expelled weeks before his graduation for his role in the movement. Fourteen other students — 11 were women — were suspended from the college as the campaign gradually lost momentum.
In February and March 1960, S.C. State and Claflin students organized sit-ins to protest exclusion from the Kress lunch counter on the town square.
Thomas Gaither, a Claflin student, and Charles “Chuck” McDew, a S.C. State student, joined with the Rev. Matthew D. McCollom of Trinity United Methodist Church and others in training students for non-violent direct action. They organized marches and sit-ins. An estimated 600-700 students marched downtown on March 1.
On a chilly Tuesday, March 15, 1960, more than 1,000 well-dressed students peacefully marched, some carrying signs, “Down with Segregation” and “Freedom.” Nearly 400 were arrested, including James Clyburn and his future wife, Emily England.
They were doused with fire department hoses and held behind chain-link fences at the then-county jail, otherwise not-so-fondly known as the Pink Palace. Demonstrations and marches continued into 1961 and 1962.
Students marching on Russell Street in October 1963.
But it was the Orangeburg Freedom Movement in the summer and fall of 1963 that brought the struggle to its peak. Occurring on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and shortly after the March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King’s ringing “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, waves of young non-violent protesters flooded downtown streets in Orangeburg almost daily. They were arrested by the score.
Veteran black businessmen and leaders including James Sulton, Earl Middleton, and dentist Dr. Harlow E. Caldwell supported the students as they organized in the basement of Trinity United Methodist Church. They were joined by clergymen James W. Curry, Chappelle M. Davis, J. Herbert Nelson and Harold Roland in the marches.
Arrested students were represented by NAACP attorneys Matthew Perry, Newton Pough, Zack Townsend and others. But it was a woman and third-grade teacher, the indomitable Gloria Blackwell Rackley, who inspired the movement.
Singing and marching, protesting and praying students were lodged following their arrests in the miserable and crowded cells of the Pink Palace until it and the outside stockade were overflowing. Many were then bused to the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia. Those left behind were treated to a nutritious diet of fatback, baloney and cold grits.
Despite an overwhelming law enforcement presence that included city police, sheriff’s deputies, SLED agents and highway patrolmen, the peaceful protests continued and expanded. Six hundred students marched on Sept. 22.
On a rainy Saturday, Sept. 28, 300 were arrested. The next day 305 were arrested in the morning and afternoon marches. On Oct. 2, 300 more young people were incarcerated.
As the days and weeks went by, many young people were arrested more than once. By the end of October, nearly 1,500 civil rights protesters had been arrested that month. Law enforcement officers often pushed, shoved, slapped, and beat those who were taken into custody.
Despite NAACP assistance, many of those arrested could not post bond and virtually all of those arrested were found guilty of breach of peace as well as other charges. Their convictions later would be dismissed or overturned on appeal to the federal courts.
Yet the white community and its leaders were intransigent and made no concessions. They adamantly refused to give in to demands for desegregation. Downtown businesses suffered financial losses as Black people declined to shop and white customers preferred to avoid the demonstrations.
Gov. Donald Russell warned S.C. State students on Oct. 7 that the college would be closed if they did not stop demonstrating.
In early October, Gloria Rackley was fired from her teaching position for her role in the Freedom Movement. Arrested more than once along with her daughters Jamelle and Lurma, she had protested segregated restrooms in the courthouse and occupied the white waiting room of a local physician. She sued the Orangeburg Regional Hospital for racial discrimination.
Claflin students participate in the March 15, 1960, march in which 388 people were arrested.
Many Black students boycotted the Black public schools to protest Rackley’s dismissal. The marches continued from October into November. Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP, offered words of encouragement when he spoke at Trinity on Nov. 13. Nine days later, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
But the Black community remained resolute as the protests, marches and arrests extended into 1964. The impasse would not be broken until July when Congress passed, and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ending segregation in public accommodations. While this landmark legislation represented remarkable progress, it did not end racial discrimination in Orangeburg, the state or the nation.
Civil rights protesters pray on the town square in Orangeburg in 1963.
And were it not for the presence and perseverance of Cecil Williams and his camera, much of this history would not have been captured and recorded. But Williams paid a price. He was arrested and had his cameras confiscated and film destroyed. His remarkable images reflect a rich and often troubled history, yet a history than needs to be told.
William C. Hine is professor emeritus of history at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.
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