SC State to commemorate 57th anniversary of Orangeburg Massacre on Saturday, Feb. 8
ORANGEBURG, S.C. – South Carolina State University will commemorate the 57thanniversary of the Orangeburg Massacre on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, beginning at 11 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Auditorium on campus.
Columbia, South Carolina, businessman and SC State alumnus Dr. Willis C. Ham will be the keynote speaker.
Following the ceremony, a brief remembrance will be conducted at the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Legacy Plaza on campus.
Please disregard the previously announced date of Friday, Feb. 7.
About the Orangeburg Massacre
On the night of Feb. 8, 1968, Henry Smith, Samuel Hammond and Delano Middleton were killed when police opened fire on some 200 unarmed Black students who were demonstrating in the name of integrating a local bowling alley. Another 28 protestors were wounded. Smith and Hammond were both enrolled at SC State, and Middleton was a 17-year-old student at Wilkinson High School in Orangeburg.
Each year on Feb. 8, the university honors Smith, Hammond and Middleton, their families and the survivors of what has become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.
At the 2022 commemoration, the university dedicated a new monument enshrined with bronze likenesses of the three men as an additional aspect of the Smith Hammond Middleton Legacy Plaza. The busts were sculpted by internationally known artist Dr. Tolulope Filani, chair of the SC State Department of Visual and Performing Arts.
The university’s convocation center/basketball arena also is named for Smith, Hammond and Middleton.
About Dr. Willis C. Ham
After four years of athletic competition, Ham earned a Bachelor of Science degree from SC State in 1968 followed by a master’s degree from his alma mater in 1973. In 1975, Ham earned a Ph.D. in design and management of postsecondary education from Florida State University.
He was he inducted into the SC State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998.
He has been a member of the National Speakers Association and the Carolina Speakers Association, having appeared as a speaker/trainer in more than 60 major U.S. cities.
He has conducted short-term training for the administration of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Educational Ministry of the Bahamas, and the Department of the Army in Wurtzburg and Landau, Germany. He has developed and facilitated long-term training for South Carolina’s Budget and Control Board, Training Division; the National Association of Human Rights Workers; and the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies.
In the 1990s he spent six years as a guest lecturer for the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, where military human resources managers are prepared, and three years conducting focus groups at military installations for the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in The Services, which protects the wellbeing of women in all branches of the military services.
He has distinguished himself as a higher education administrator, an athletics director, and a state government official. As a higher education administrator, he developed three major programs for two institutions as their first full-time director; his NCAA Division I Sports program produced 43 championships, 48 male and female All-Americans, 20 professional football signees, and 22 coaches of the year awards in 10 years. He is a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
His human rights agency returned over $1 million annually to citizens who had been discriminated against in employment, fair housing, and public accommodations in nearly nine years. He fully believes that he can inspire people to see the invisible, feel the intangible, and achieve the impossible, by working introspectively, throughout their lives.
His preparation for continued success with business and industry, education, government, and civic organizations includes the following areas of certification since 1984:
· Personal Dynamics Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Adventures in Attitudes, Leadership, Communications, Careers, and Stress Management).
· Atlanta Consulting Group, Atlanta, Georgia (Relationship Management).
· South Carolina Council on Mediation, Columbia, South Carolina (Mediation)
· Advantage Coaching and Training, Wheaton, Illinois (Business Coaching)
· Bell South’s Global Leaders of the South Institute, Calloway Gardens, Georgia and Washington, D.C. (Global Leadership).
· The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Executive Institute, Cleveland, Ohio (Athletic Executive Management).
His first train-the-trainer experience came at Marine Corps Headquarters, Quantico, Virginia, where he was a Marine Corps Reservist – honorably discharged.
His specialty is designing customized speeches and training activities to improve the delivery potential of individuals and groups at work and in their daily lives.
He retired from public service in July of 2007 and has turned his attention to consulting, speaking and training, and personal health products development.