The names Henry Smith, Samuel Hammond Jr. and Delano Middleton remain etched into the identity of South Carolina State University, not simply as history, but as a continuing call to conscience.
Fifty-eight years to the day after police gunfire rang out on SC State’s campus, the university community gathered Sunday to remember the three young men killed Feb. 8, 1968, when officers opened fire on a crowd of unarmed Black students who had rallied on campus after demonstrating against segregation at a local bowling alley.
The 58th Commemoration of the Orangeburg Massacre centered on reflection and responsibility, linking the past to present-day struggles for justice.
Michael A. Allen, an SC State alumnus and retired community partnership specialist with the National Park Service, delivered the keynote message in the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium.
Referencing philosopher George Santayana’s warning that those who fail to remember the past are condemned to repeat it, Allen urged the audience to see remembrance as active stewardship rather than ritual.
“We gather today because memory matters,” Allen said. “These words are not merely reflections — they are instructive. They call us to be vigilant, to educate and to operate with moral courage.”
He reminded listeners that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had already outlawed discrimination in public accommodations when students challenged segregation
SC State President Alexander Conyers (right) assists Hammond family member Zanette Clark in lighting a torch in memory of her uncle, Samuel Hammond, one of three young men slain in the Orangeburg Massacre, during the annual commemoration at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Legacy Plaza on the university’s campus.
at the bowling alley. Their actions, he said, were lawful and grounded in a demand for equal treatment.
“Their call for equal treatment was misconstrued as disorder. The aftermath was even more complex and painful,” Allen said.
A call for stewardship
Allen connected the tragedy on SC State’s campus to more recent names in the national conversation about justice, including Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after being placed in an illegal chokehold by New York police officers, and Walter Scott, who was fatally shot by a police officer in North Charleston in 2015.
“History leaves long shadows,” he said, noting that while the names change, the struggle for justice continues.
“History is not just something we study. It is something we steward. Our legacy is greater than how we’re being portrayed,” Allen said.
Smith and Hammond were students at SC State.
Middleton was a 17-year-old student at Wilkinson High School in Orangeburg. The shooting marked the first instance of police killing student protestors at an American university.
Allen acknowledged that no ceremony can fully heal the pain carried by families and survivors.
“We gather here this day because we know from whence we came,” Allen said. Smith-Hammond-Middleton Social Justice Awards Following the keynote address, SC State President Alexander Conyers presented the university’s 2026 Smith-Hammond-Middleton Social Justice Awards to four recipients, including Allen. The other recipients were:
• Barbara Johnson Williams, a three-time SC State graduate who has devoted a lifetime to education, community leadership, and service, advancing equity, civic
