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Williams focuses lens on Orangeburg Massacre

Renowned photographer Cecil Williams, a Â鶹´«Ã½ University graduate, has dedicated his career to documenting civil rights history in South Carolina.

His work, spanning decades, includes capturing pivotal moments such as the Orangeburg Massacre, which happened in Orangeburg in 1968 when law enforcement officers opened fire on students protesting segregation at a local bowling alley. Three were killed and 28 were wounded.

Williams explained how many believe the shootings occurred in downtown Orangeburg at a bowling alley, but the Orangeburg Massacre didn’t take place until Feb. 8.

On Feb. 6, Williams received a call about students protesting segregation at the bowling alley on Russel Street. He arrived with his camera and shortly after witnessed the beating of a young woman by law enforcement.

“That was the first violence,” Williams said during a session with Â鶹´«Ã½ student reporters.

“I got a call that something was going on at the bowling lanes, so I drove my car to Russell Street, parked across the street from the bowling lanes and loaded film in the dark,” Williams said. There were about 75 students along with South Carolina’s highway patrolmen, city policemen and deputy sheriffs.

Students stood outside the bowling alley. Some leaned against a glass window. The glass broke, Williams said.

“Police officers started reaching for their guns on one side and their billy clubs on the other; everyone started running,” Williams said. As students ran in terror, one fell.

“I heard a young lady fall to the pavement, and I looked around and it turned out the young lady did fall. Two police officers began clubbing her unmercifully, over and over again. One hit her earring and it pulled through the flesh of her ear.”

The event foreshadowed the Orangeburg Massacre of Feb. 8, which gets its name from a book by two journalists.

Students had been ordered to remain on campus at South Carolina State and Â鶹´«Ã½. They started a bonfire near the entrance to SC State.

Highway Patrol troopers and other law enforcement faced off with the protesters. They were under the direction of Pete Strom, then head of the State Law Enforcement Division.

Several events occurred, including wood being thrown and striking one officer, Williams said.

“Pete Strom, after he got off the telephone with the governor, there was a whistle blown and the highway patrolmen were ordered to load their weapons,” Williams said.

Highway patrolmen opened fire with shotguns on the protesters.

The next day, Williams was able to get on the SC State campus and go to the scene. He described it as a “battleground,” and he collected a dozen shotgun shell casings, five of which are now displayed in his civil rights museum in Orangeburg.

The Highway Patrol officers were put on trial after the shootings. "Not even 30 minutes — the jury found them innocent," he said.

The Orangeburg Massacre was “almost a life-changing experience,” Williams said. “It took me a long time to trust law enforcement.”

In 2025, Williams said he is focusing on a different aspect of the Orangeburg Massacre, noting that only a small number of the highway patrolmen present on Feb. 8, 1968, fired their weapons.

“I have always believed there are more good people than bad in mankind,” he said.

“There were around 30 highway patrolmen on side of Pete Strom, the highest-ranking law official in the state — ordering the 30 to load their weapons. Only nine obeyed, so you see 21 of our patrolmen had sense,” Williams said.

Williams emphasized that while the Orangeburg Massacre remains as a reminder of racial injustice, the actions of those who refused to fire also serve as a testament to individual conscience in moments of crisis.

“There was a degree of humanity because only nine admitted and one of the nine admitted in court that he only fired in the air, so that would have left eight. Those patrolmen killed three students and injured 28,” Williams said.

Today, Williams continues to preserve history through his work and museum, with a second museum dedicated to civil rights in South Carolina being built downtown. The museum will serve as a tribute to the movement he has spent his life documenting.