“S” is for Sellers, Cleveland Louis, Jr. [b. 1944]. Civil rights activist. Educator. Sellers attended Howard University where he met several student activists, including Stokely Carmichael—later chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. In 1967, he returned to South Carolina and sought to organize students at the state’s historically black colleges—especially South Carolina State College in Orangeburg. Student demonstrations at a segregated bowling alley led to what has been termed the “Orangeburg Massacre.” Sellers was blamed for inciting a riot, indicted, convicted, and imprisoned. He later obtained graduate degrees from Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 1990, he joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina and became director of its African American Studies Program. In 2008, Cleveland Louis Sellers, Jr., became president of Voorhees College.
Standards
- 8.5.CX Analyze the correlation between the Modern Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina and the U.S.
- This indicator was designed to foster inquiry into the role of South Carolina in the Modern Civil Rights Movement, to include the influence of court cases such as Briggs v. Elliot and Flemming v. South Carolina Electric and Gas. This indicator was also developed to promote inquiry into the relationship between national leadership, protests, and events and South Carolina leadership, protests and events, such as the Friendship Nine and the Orangeburg Massacre.
