Civil Rights Meetings

Front: In the early 1960s, this campus was an important meeting place for local college students organizing for civil rights. Organizers included students from Claflin College and neighboring S.C. State College. They chose to meet here due to opposition by the administration and trustees at S.C. State, a state-supported school. Campus sites where students planned sit-ins, marches, and other events included a bell tower, a bandstand, and Seabrook Gymnasium. Reverse: On March 15, 1960, approx. 1,000 students peacefully marched from this site to downtown Orangeburg to conduct sit-ins at several segregated establishments. They departed Claflin in groups and were eventually attacked with fire hoses and tear gas. Nearly 400 protesters were arrested. The march was one of the largest demonstrations of the 1960 sit-in movement and helped galvanize local African American support for civil rights activism in Orangeburg.