Murder on Campus at South Carolina State

Fanon taught us about internal violence and external violence. We remember the Orangeburg massacre of the 60s or State violence against students. Now it is students themselves who have internalized self-hatred expressed as violence.

--Marvin X

Orangeburg massacre is the most common name given to an incident on February 8, 1968, in which nine South Carolina Highway Patrol officers in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of protesters demonstrating against segregation at a bowling alley near the campus of South Carolina State College, a historically black college. Three men were killed and twenty-eight persons were injured; most victims were shot in the back.^[1] One of the injured was a pregnant woman. She had a miscarriage a week later due to her beating by the police. It was the first unrest on a university campus resulting in deaths of protesters in the U.S.

The event pre-dated the 1970 Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings, in which the National Guard at Kent State, and police and state highway patrol at Jackson State killed student protesters demonstrating against the United States invasion of Cambodia during theVietnam War.

South Carolina State Student Murdered in Broad Daylight

by David Miller

According to USA Today, a student at South Carolina State University was killed on campus.  The authorities are now searching for the four suspects who are believed to have been linked to the murder. 

The shooting occurred in the middle of the day outside the Andrew Hugine Suites, one of the dorms on campus.   The school is located 40 miles south of Columbia, South Carolina.

The victim was 20 year old Brandon Robinson of Orangeburg.  He was a member of the football team.

“We are extraordinarily sad about this,” said university President Thomas Elzey. “He’s a very nice young man … and it hurts. It hurts us all.”

The governor of the state, Nikki Haley, reached out to the school to offer any support that the government could offer.   The school was placed on lockdown during the shooting, with no one allowed to enter or leave the campus during the initial investigation.

University Police Chief Mernard Clarkson says that they know who fired the shots and are at this point working to ensure that students are protected.

“The students are safe,” he said during a news conference. “The perimeter of the campus has been secured.”

Claflin University, another campus across the street, was also on lockdown during the ordeal.   The school has not released suspects or a motive for the shooting.   The state of South Carolina allows its residents to buy rifles and shotguns, but they are not allowed to bring them on private school property.

This is the second shooting on the South Carolina State University campus since 2011.  In another shooting, three men met on campus for a drug deal.  A student was killed in that incident.