Blood and Bone

Jack Shuler

Description

A fresh perspective on the Orangeburg Massacre and its legacy

On the night of February 8, 1968, South Carolina state highway patrolmen fired on civil rights demonstrators in front of South Carolina State College, a historically black institution in the town of Orangeburg. Three young black men—Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith—were killed, and twenty-seven other protestors were injured. Preceding the infamous events at Kent State University by more than two years, the Orangeburg Massacre, as it came to be known, was one of the first violent civil rights confrontations on an American college campus. The patrolmen involved were exonerated while victims and their families were left still seeking justice. To this day the community of Orangeburg endeavors to find resolution and reconciliation.

In Blood and Bone, Orangeburg native Jack Shuler offers a multifaceted examination of the massacre and its aftermath, uncovering a richer history than the one he learned as a white youth growing up in Orangeburg. Shuler focuses on why events unfolded and escalated as they did and on the ramifications that still haunt the community.

Despite the violence of the massacre and its contentious legacy, Orangeburg is a community of people living and working together. Shuler tells their fascinating stories and pays close attention to the ways in which the region is shaping a new narrative on its own, despite the lack of any official reexamination of the massacre. He also explores his own efforts to understand the tragedy in the context of Orangeburg's history of violence. His native connections gave him access to individuals, black and white, who have previously not spoken out publicly. Blood and Bone breaks new ground as an investigation of the massacre and also as a reflection by a proud Orangeburg native on the meanings of Southern community.

Shuler concludes that the history of race and violence in Orangeburg mirrors the history of race relations in the United States—a murky and contested narrative, complicated by the emotions and motivations of those who have shaped the story and of those who have refused to close the book on it. Orangeburg, like the rest of the nation, carries the historical burdens of slavery, war, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and civil rights. Blood and Bone exposes the ways in which historical memory affects the lives of ordinary Americans. Shuler explores how they remember the Orangeburg Massacre, what its meaning holds for them now, and what it means for the future of the South and the nation.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Kith (Poul Anderson)
• Mary Ann Vecchio
• Country of My Skull
• Bull Connor
• Sharpeville massacre
• Civil disorder
• State
• Disconnection
• H. Rap Brown
• South
• History of the Americas
• In My Country
• United States
• Oppression
• FL
• Local
• KY
• LA
• TN
• MS
• SC
• NC
• AR
• Discrimination
• Adage
• Violence
• VA
• GA

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 18 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611174465
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

BLOOD & BONE

BLOOD & BONE
Truth and Reconciliation in a Southern Town
JACK SHULER
© 2012 Jack Shuler
Cloth edition published by the University of South Carolina Press, 2012
Ebook edition published in Columbia, South Carolina,
by the University of South Carolina Press, 2013
www.sc.edu/uscpress
22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition as follows:
Shuler, Jack.
Blood and bone : truth and reconciliation in a Southern town / Jack Shuler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61117-048-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Riots—South Carolina—Orangeburg. 2. African Americans—Civil rights—South Carolina. 3. Orangeburg (S.C.)—Race relations. 4. Orangeburg (S.C.)—History. 1. Title.
F279.O6S57 2012
323.1196'073075779—dc23
2011045349
ISBN 978-1-61117-446-5 (ebook)
For Orangeburg
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Introduction
Part One
1 The Archive and the Archivist
2 The Bystander
3 Garden City and Palmetto State
4 Spitting at Jim Crow
5 Eight Seconds of Holy Hell
6 The State’s Men
7 The Struggle
Part Two
8 “That thing hurt me”
9 “A different light than bitterness”
10 Editing the Story
11 Black, White, and Green
12 New Narratives
Epilogue
Who’s Who
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
All photographs are by Noah Wood .
Railroad tracks at Ruff Road
A road to the Canaan community south of Orangeburg County
Present-day view of the hill at S.C. State where students were standing on February 8, 1968
The old Orangeburg jailhouse, known as the Pink Palace, still in use during the 1960s
Railroad crossing where Lawrence Brown’s lynched body was likely found in 1897
Jailhouse door in the Pink Palace
Sign for the bowling alley where students protested on February 6, 1968
Historical marker commemorating the events of February 8, 1968
The bridge in Edisto Memorial Gardens where Confederate troops mounted their last defense of Orangeburg
Fountain at the entrance to Edisto Memorial Gardens
First Presbyterian Church on Summers Avenue in Orangeburg
Live oaks on the road to the Oaks retirement community
Welcome sign just off Highway 601 in Orangeburg
Rose in Edisto Memorial Gardens
S.C. State memorial to the young men killed on February 8, 1968
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the generous encouragement of the Department of English at Denison University, especially the glue that holds our pirate ship together, Anneliese Deimel Davis. Thank you to the Denison University Research Foundation and to Denison University for providing generous financial support for this project.
Many wonderful people read drafts and listened to me talk endlessly about this project, including Jim Davis, Gene Shaw, Maria Zeguers Shaw, Katharine Jager, Fred Porcheddu, Linda Krumholz, Bill Hine, Craig Keeney, and Michael Griffith—much respect to all of you. And to Dennis Read and Paul Thompson, my eleventh-hour team, I owe you both.
Noah Wood offered his excellent eye. Christopher Davis offered his excellent ear, transcribing many of the interviews.
Thank you to those people who helped turn a project into a book: Marcus Rediker (who connected me to a superb literary agency), the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency (Sandra Dijkstra and Elise Capron, have negotiated and cheered for me through all the ups and downs), and to my always awesome editor Alexander Moore, as well as Curtis Clark, Jonathan Haupt, Karen Rood, and everyone else at the University of South Carolina Press. Thank you.
Thank you to those who helped with the research, either in the archives or by connecting me to possible interviewees: Bill Hine, Ashley Till, Barbara Keitt, Erica Prioleau-Taylor, Buddy Pough, Clemmie Webber, all the Denison University librarians (especially Josh Finnell and Susan Rice), Craig Keeney, Ruthie McLeod, Ellen Shuler Hinrichs, Marion Shuler, Curt Campbell, Thomas Salley, First Presbyterian Church of Orangeburg, Jud Jordan, Ayesha Venkataraman, and Gail Martineau. A special thank you to Holly Burdorff for reading reels of microfilm and tracking down obscure newspaper references. Most important, thank you to Jack Bass and Jack Nelson (rest in peace), the better craftsmen.
I spent about six weeks crossing t ’s and dotting i ’s at the New York Public Library in the Allen Room—a wonderfully quiet place for researching and editing that is kept humming by Jay Barksdale. While I was in the city, my friends Katherine and Joe provided a roof over my head.
A special thank you to the students of my spring 2010 English Senior Seminar. Thank you for your open minds (and hearts) and thirty-two new eyeballs examining this event. It was a pleasure to spend time with y’all: Kristine Aman, Kevin Burdett, Joseph Butler, Hannah Daugherty, Eric Elligott, Lindsay Goudy, Mary Aurora Grandinetti, Angelica Guitierrez, Alex Hupertz, Christina Marino, Laura Masters, Tyra Owens, Christoffer Stromstedt, Leah Taub, Emily Taylor, and Eliza Williams.
Thank you to those who allowed me to interview them between spring 2009 and summer 2010:
Jerome Anderson (January 6, 2010)
Three anonymous National Guard soldiers (March 19, 2009, and July 15, 2009)
Jack Bass (e-mail exchange May 15, 2009)
Dr. Oscar Butler (March 19, 2009)
Gilda Cobb-Hunter (January 4, 2010)
Calhoun Cornwell (January 6, 2010)
George Dean (January 6, 2010)
Hannah Floyd (July 16, 2010)
Don Frampton (December 16, 2009)
Henry Frierson (March 18, 2009)
Lee Harter (January 6, 2010)
William Hine (March 20, 2009, and January 5, 2010)
Cathy Hughes (March 17, 2009)
Clyde Jeffcoat (February 6, 2010)
Charlie Jones (January 6, 2010)
Judson Jordan (March 18, 2009)
Dean Livingston (February 6, 2010)
Bo McBratnie (February 6, 2010)
James McGee (July 14, 2009)
Nate McMillan (March 20, 2009, and January 7, 2010)
Zachary Middleton (July 16, 2009, January 6, 2010, and February 6, 2010)
Paul Miller (March 19, 2009)
Johnalee Nelson (March 18, 2009, and January 4, 2010)
J. C. Pace (July 17, 2009)
Cleveland Sellers (February 5, 2010)
Ernest Shuler (March 18, 2009)
John F. Shuler Sr. (May 9, 2009)
Mike Smith (February 8, 2010)
Carl Stokes (February 27, 2010)
John Stroman (July 15, 2009)
Ashley Till (July 13, 2009)
Angie Floyd Vaughn (July 16, 2010)
Mary Williams (March 19, 2009)
Geraldyne Zimmerman (January 7, 2010).
Thank you for your honesty and your trust and for teaching me so many things about my hometown. I would also like to acknowledge the folks I interviewed at Kent State University on May 4 and 5, 2010: Carole Barbato, Timothy Moore, and Laura Davis.
I started writing as a teenager and was encouraged by many Sandlappers along the way, including several of my teachers from Orangeburg Prep. During the summer of 1994 I had the good fortune to attend the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts (SCGSA), where amazing teachers such as George Singleton and fast friends such as Hayes Oakley taught me to accept criticism and to practice, practice, practice. SCGSA is one of South Carolina’s treasures. Finally a well-known writer from the upstate named Dori Sanders gave a reading at the Orangeburg County Public Library when I was fifteen. I went to the reading and gave her some of my poems. A week later she wrote me a letter of encouragement, a simple act of kindness I’ve never forgotten.
I am inspired every morning by the constant motion and energy of my daughter, Amelie Jane. In many and important ways, AJ, this book is for you and your generation. Don’t lose hope—another world is possible. Thank you to my dancing partner Ceciel Shaw—AJ’s infinitely patient mother. Ceciel, your support and inspiration keep me going.
To my family and friends, especially John F. Shuler Sr. and Jane Clinge Shuler, I love you.
Finally I would like to express my gratitude to the people of Orangeburg to whom this book is dedicated. Y’all raised me, and for that I am eternally grateful. A portion of the proceeds from this book will go into a fund to help those young people who would like to play sports with the Orangeburg Parks and Recreation Department but can’t afford to do so. When I was a kid growing up in Orangeburg, running track, playing football and soccer (and one season of basketball) introduced me to people young and old, black and white, whom I might not have met otherwise. For information on how you can contribute to this project and for updates on this book and the community behind it, go to www.jackshulerauthor.com .
CHRONOLOGY
1670
The colony of Carolina is settled and chattel slavery established.
1735
Orangeburg is settled by a group of Swiss Germans.
1739
September 9
The Stono Rebellion, one of the largest slave uprisings in colonial North America, takes place fifteen miles south of Charleston.
1822
July 2
Charleston resident Denmark Vesey is executed for planning the liberation of slaves in South Carolina.
1860
December 20
South Carolina is the first state to secede from the Union.
1865
February 12
Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman sack Orangeburg.