Cleveland Sellers

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Cleveland Sellers, Jr.

Date of birth:	November 8, 1944(1944-11-08)
Place of birth:	Denmark, South Carolina, USA
Movement:	African-American Civil Rights Movement

Cleveland Sellers, Jr. was born in 1944 in Denmark, South Carolina to Cleveland and Pauline Sellers.^[1] He is known for his involvement in the African-American Civil Rights Movement through SNCC. He was the only person jailed for events at the Orangeburg Massacre, a 1968 civil rights protest where three students were killed by state troopers. He is the Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of South Carolina. On April 22, 2008, he was named to be the next president of Voorhees College.^[2]

1 Early life
2 Civil rights activism
3 Orangeburg Massacre
4 Later life
5 Family
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Early life

In 1960, in response to the Greensboro sit-ins, Sellers organized a sit-in protest at a Denmark, South Carolina lunch counter. At 15, this would be his first involvement with the Civil Rights movement.^[3] 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.^[4]^[5]

[edit] Civil rights activism

In 1962 Sellers enrolled in Howard University. After the 1960 protest, Sellers' father had forbade his son jeopardizing himself by becoming an activist.^[6]

However, during his sophomore year he became involved with SNCC.^[3] He became involved with voter registration drives in Mississippi and in 1965 became the became the program director of SNCC.^[3]

When, in the summer of 1966, he heard the news 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.^[6]^[3]^[7]

After the march, he was with Carmichael when the term “black power” was first used. He was also one of the first member of SNCC members to refuse to be drafted into the U.S. military as a protest against the Vietnam War.^[3] The leadership of SNCC thought that the Johnson Administration was trying to silence SNCC by drafting its leadership. ^[8] Sellers graduated from Howard in 1967. After graduation he returned to South Carolina.^[9]

[edit] Orangeburg Massacre

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On February 8, 1968, approximately 200 protesters had 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), a bowling alley on Russell Street, owned by local businessman Harry K. Floyd.^[8] The officers responded by firing into the crowd, killing three young men, Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding 27 others.^[8]

Then Governor Robert Evander McNair blamed "outside Black Power agitators", but subsequent investigations showed this to be untrue.^[8]

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.^[10]

During his imprisonment he wrote his autobiography, "The River of No Return," chronicling his involvement with the civil rights movement. ^[3] Sellers received a full pardon 25 years after his conviction, but he chose not to have his record expunged as a "badge of honor." ^[11]

[edit] Later life

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After his release from prison, Sellers earned a Master's degree in education from Harvard University in 1970.^[8] 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.^[12]^[3]

He is the Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of South Carolina.^[3] 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 and, the survival experiences of African Americans, sometimes recorded in folklore but in most instances unrecorded).^[12]

[edit] Family

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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 23 (DOB September 18, 1984), he is one of the youngest state lawmakers in the United States. Elected in November 2006, he is also a second year law student.^[11]