Cleveland Sellers
Encyclopedia
Cleveland Sellers, Jr. was born in 1944 in Denmark, South Carolina
to Cleveland and Pauline Sellers. As a young man, he was known for his involvement in the African-American Civil Rights Movement
through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
. He was the only person convicted and jailed for events at the Orangeburg Massacre
, a 1968 civil rights protest in which three students were killed by state troopers. Sellers' conviction and the acquittal of the other nine defendants was believed to be motivated by racism
, and Sellers received a full pardon 25 years after the incident.
Sellers is the former Director of the African American Studies
Program at the University of South Carolina
. On April 22, 2008, he was named president of Voorhees College
.
, Sellers organized a sit-in protest at a Denmark, South Carolina lunch counter. At age 15, he was active for the first time with the Civil Rights movement. During his boyhood, Sellers joined the Boy Scouts of America
and attended the 1960 National Scout jamboree
in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Although Sellers completed the requirements necessary to become an Eagle Scout
, "his paperwork was lost" and he was not formally recognized with the honor until December 3, 2007 at 64 years of age, more than four decades after it was earned. Sellers was presented with a historically correct Eagle Scout medal that would have been awarded in the 1960s at a special Eagle Scout Court of Honor at the 2010 Centennial National Scout Jamboree.
. After the 1960 protest, Sellers' father had forbidden his son's jeopardizing himself by becoming an activist. However, during his sophomore year, Sellers became involved with SNCC. He worked on voter registration drives in Mississippi
, and was the director of the Holly Springs COFO office during Mississippi Freedom Summer. A significant amount of material on this period may be found in the Mississippi Digital Library. In 1965 he became the program director of SNCC. In the summer of 1966, when Sellers heard of the attempted murder of James Meredith
, he joined other civil rights
campaigners, including SCLC
's Martin Luther King, SNCC
's Stokely Carmichael
and Floyd McKissick
in the march across Mississippi
.
After the march, Sellers was with Carmichael
when the term “black power” was first used. He was also one of the first members of SNCC to refuse to be drafted into the U.S. military as a protest against the Vietnam War
. The leadership of SNCC thought that the Johnson Administration was trying to silence SNCC by drafting its leadership. Sellers graduated from Howard in 1967. After graduation, he returned to South Carolina.
.
On February 8, 1968, approximately 200 protesters gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University
(in the city of Orangeburg
) to protest the segregation
of the All Star Bowling Lane. Now called All-Star Triangle Bowl, it was a bowling alley on Russell Street, owned by local businessman Harry K. Floyd. Police officers panicked when they thought they were being attacked (so they claimed) and fired into the crowd, killing three young men: Samuel Hammond, all-state basketball player Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding 27 others.
Then Governor Robert Evander McNair
blamed "outside Black Power
agitators", but subsequent investigations showed this allegation was without basis.
The ensuing trial, billed as the first federal trial of police officers for using excessive force
at a campus protest, led to the acquittal
of all nine defendants. Sellers was the only individual imprisoned as a result of the incident. He served seven months in prison after a conviction for inciting to riot.
During his imprisonment he wrote his autobiography, The River of No Return, chronicling his involvement with the civil rights movement. Sellers received a full pardon 25 years after his conviction, but he chose not to have his record expunged, keeping it as a "badge of honor."
in 1970. He ran unsuccessfully for office in Greensboro, North Carolina while aiding the 1984 presidential campaign of Reverend Jesse Jackson
. Sellers earned his Ed.D. in History
at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
in 1987.
He served as Director of the African American Studies
Program at the University of South Carolina
. His scholarly interests include recording the history of protest tradition, civil rights
history, and the experiences of Africans in the Diaspora. He focuses on the oral history of African Americans who shaped the history of South Carolina, including cultural groupings and the languages of Gullah
, Creole
, and Ghegee. He also has studied the survival experiences of African Americans, sometimes recorded in folklore but often unrecorded.
In 2008, Sellers was selected as president of Voorhees College
(Denmark, South Carolina
), where he graduated from high school.
His youngest son is South Carolina state Rep. Bakari T. Sellers. At age 26 (DOB September 18, 1984), B.T. Sellers was one of the youngest state lawmakers in the United States
when he was first elected in November 2006.
Denmark, South Carolina
Denmark is a city in Bamberg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,934 at the 2009 census.-Geography:Denmark is located at .According to the...
to Cleveland and Pauline Sellers. As a young man, he was known for his involvement in the African-American Civil Rights Movement
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
. He was the only person convicted and jailed for events at the Orangeburg Massacre
Orangeburg massacre
The Orangeburg massacre was an incident on February 8, 1968, in which nine South Carolina Highway Patrol officers in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into an aggravated but unarmed mob protesting local segregation at a bowling alley, hitting most of them in their backs. Three men were killed and...
, a 1968 civil rights protest in which three students were killed by state troopers. Sellers' conviction and the acquittal of the other nine defendants was believed to be motivated by racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, and Sellers received a full pardon 25 years after the incident.
Sellers is the former Director of the African American Studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
Program at the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
. On April 22, 2008, he was named president of Voorhees College
Voorhees College
Voorhees College is a private, historically black college in Denmark, South Carolina. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Voorhees College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
.
Early life
In 1960, in response to the Greensboro sit-insGreensboro sit-ins
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests which led to the Woolworth's department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States....
, Sellers organized a sit-in protest at a Denmark, South Carolina lunch counter. At age 15, he was active for the first time with the Civil Rights movement. During his boyhood, Sellers joined the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
and attended the 1960 National Scout jamboree
National Scout jamboree (Boy Scouts of America)
The national Scout jamboree is a gathering, or jamboree of thousands of members of the Boy Scouts of America, usually held every four years and organized by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Referred to as "the Jamboree", "Jambo", or NSJ, Scouts from all over the nation and world...
in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Although Sellers completed the requirements necessary to become an Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
, "his paperwork was lost" and he was not formally recognized with the honor until December 3, 2007 at 64 years of age, more than four decades after it was earned. Sellers was presented with a historically correct Eagle Scout medal that would have been awarded in the 1960s at a special Eagle Scout Court of Honor at the 2010 Centennial National Scout Jamboree.
Civil rights activism
In 1962 Sellers enrolled in Howard UniversityHoward University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
. After the 1960 protest, Sellers' father had forbidden his son's jeopardizing himself by becoming an activist. However, during his sophomore year, Sellers became involved with SNCC. He worked on voter registration drives in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, and was the director of the Holly Springs COFO office during Mississippi Freedom Summer. A significant amount of material on this period may be found in the Mississippi Digital Library. In 1965 he became the program director of SNCC. In the summer of 1966, when Sellers heard of the attempted murder of James Meredith
James Meredith
James H. Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated by President...
, he joined other civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
campaigners, including SCLC
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
's Martin Luther King, SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
's Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...
and Floyd McKissick
Floyd McKissick
Floyd Bixler McKissick was born in Asheville, North Carolina on March 9, 1922. He became the first African American student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Law School. In 1966 he became leader of CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, taking over from James L. Farmer, Jr. A...
in the march across Mississippi
March Against Fear
On June 6, 1966, James Meredith started a solitary March Against Fear for 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to protest against racism. Soon after starting his march he was shot by a sniper with birdshot, injuring him...
.
After the march, Sellers was with Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...
when the term “black power” was first used. He was also one of the first members of SNCC to refuse to be drafted into the U.S. military as a protest against the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The leadership of SNCC thought that the Johnson Administration was trying to silence SNCC by drafting its leadership. Sellers graduated from Howard in 1967. After graduation, he returned to South Carolina.
Orangeburg Massacre
The main article for this section is Orangeburg MassacreOrangeburg massacre
The Orangeburg massacre was an incident on February 8, 1968, in which nine South Carolina Highway Patrol officers in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into an aggravated but unarmed mob protesting local segregation at a bowling alley, hitting most of them in their backs. Three men were killed and...
.
On February 8, 1968, approximately 200 protesters gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University
South Carolina State University
South Carolina State University is a historically black university located in Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States. It is the only state funded, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina and is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.- Colleges, departments,...
(in the city of Orangeburg
Orangeburg, South Carolina
Orangeburg, also known as "The Garden City," is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city is also the fifth oldest city in the state of South Carolina. The city population was 12,765 at the 2000 census, within a Greater Orangeburg...
) to protest the segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
of the All Star Bowling Lane. Now called All-Star Triangle Bowl, it was a bowling alley on Russell Street, owned by local businessman Harry K. Floyd. Police officers panicked when they thought they were being attacked (so they claimed) and fired into the crowd, killing three young men: Samuel Hammond, all-state basketball player Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding 27 others.
Then Governor Robert Evander McNair
Robert Evander McNair
Robert Evander McNair, Sr. , was the 108th governor of South Carolina, having served from 1965 to 1971.-Biography:...
blamed "outside Black Power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
agitators", but subsequent investigations showed this allegation was without basis.
The ensuing trial, billed as the first federal trial of police officers for using excessive force
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
at a campus protest, led to the acquittal
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
of all nine defendants. Sellers was the only individual imprisoned as a result of the incident. He served seven months in prison after a conviction for inciting to riot.
During his imprisonment he wrote his autobiography, The River of No Return, chronicling his involvement with the civil rights movement. Sellers received a full pardon 25 years after his conviction, but he chose not to have his record expunged, keeping it as a "badge of honor."
Later life
After his release from prison, Sellers earned a Master's degree in education from Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1970. He ran unsuccessfully for office in Greensboro, North Carolina while aiding the 1984 presidential campaign of Reverend Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
. Sellers earned his Ed.D. in History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...
in 1987.
He served as Director of the African American Studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
Program at the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
. His scholarly interests include recording the history of protest tradition, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
history, and the experiences of Africans in the Diaspora. He focuses on the oral history of African Americans who shaped the history of South Carolina, including cultural groupings and the languages of Gullah
Gullah
The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands....
, Creole
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
, and Ghegee. He also has studied the survival experiences of African Americans, sometimes recorded in folklore but often unrecorded.
In 2008, Sellers was selected as president of Voorhees College
Voorhees College
Voorhees College is a private, historically black college in Denmark, South Carolina. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Voorhees College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
(Denmark, South Carolina
Denmark, South Carolina
Denmark is a city in Bamberg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,934 at the 2009 census.-Geography:Denmark is located at .According to the...
), where he graduated from high school.
Family
Sellers and his wife Gwen have three children, two sons and a daughter.His youngest son is South Carolina state Rep. Bakari T. Sellers. At age 26 (DOB September 18, 1984), B.T. Sellers was one of the youngest state lawmakers in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
when he was first elected in November 2006.
External links
- Civil Rights Greensboro: Cleveland Sellers
- Brian Cabell: Remembering the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre February 8, 2001 Web posted at: 4:02 p.m. EST (2102 GMT). Accessed April 1, 2005.
- Jack Bass, "Documenting the Orangeburg Massacre", [Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard]. Harvard University. Fall 2003. Accessed April 1, 2005.
- The Orangeburg Massacre, About.com. Accessed April 1, 2005.
- Linda Meggett Brown, "Remembering the Orangeburg Massacre", Black Issues in Higher Education, March 1, 2001. Accessed April 1, 2005.
- "A Guardian reporter visits the All-Star Triangle Bowl", The Guardian
- Democracy Now! Interview with Cleveland Sellers in 2008, Democracy Now
- Picture of Cleveland Sellers 1965 at burned Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Blue Mountain Mississippi
- Voorhees: About the President