Cleveland Sellers | Road Trip

In 1968, Sellers was then a student at Harvard University. He was visiting Orangeburg as a recruiter for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On the night of February eighth, he arrived on South Carolina State's campus shortly before the shootings (Orangeburg Massacre) began. He was shot while trying to help other injured persons. SLED and the FBI arrested Sellers at the infirmary and charged him with inciting a riot.

One of his lawyers was Dr. Fred H. Moore, the student leader who marshaled student support for a major boycott of White businesses in 1956. Sellers served seven months in prison and was released five months early for good behavior.

In 1993, he received a pardon issued by the State Probation, Pardon and Parole Board. Dr. Sellers is currently the director of African American Studies at the University of South Carolina.

Standards

• 8-7 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the impact on South Carolina of significant events of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
  • 8-7.0 Changes that took place in the United States during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries revitalized the economy and challenged traditional society and politics in South Carolina. To understand the response of South Carolina to the...
    • 8-7.2 Analyze the movement for civil rights in South Carolina, including the impact of the landmark court cases Elmore v. Rice and Briggs v. Elliot; civil rights leaders Septima Poinsette Clark, Modjeska Monteith Simkins, and Matthew J. Perry; the Sout...
• 8.5 Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of world events on South Carolina and the United States from 1929 to present.
  • 8.5.CC Analyze the continuities and changes in South Carolinas identity resulting from the civic participation of different individuals and groups of South Carolinians.
  • 8.5.CX Analyze the correlation between the Modern Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina and the U.S.