Former 'agitator' to become Eagle Scout

Self-proclaimed 'black militant' hopes to change old image with new title

COLUMBIA — Cleveland Sellers has been tagged with the label of "outside agitator" and once could be called a criminal. He was a coordinator for a civil rights organization and called himself a "black militant" in his autobiography.

But the man once blamed for a 1968 civil rights protest where three students were gunned down by South Carolina troopers goes by some different titles these days.

You can call him doctor. You can call him director of the African American Studies program at the University of South Carolina. And, next month, he'll add Eagle Scout to the list.

For Sellers, 64, reaching scouting's highest ranks on Dec. 3 is an achievement he hopes will add an important layer to a personal narrative that always will be linked to the Orangeburg Massacre.

"People have tried to create these monsters and make us something that we weren't because it helped them make their case," Sellers said during a recent interview at his college office. "I think it's important for people to know who I am and maybe through the process that will help lower the barrier and lower the kind of imagery they have of me."

That Sellers was a Boy Scout — and one on the path to Eagle Scout until his paperwork was lost nearly four decades ago — might seem incongruous to those who know him mostly as someone convicted of rioting that led to the Orangeburg shootings.

But the native of the small town of Denmark credits scouting for his appreciation of nature, and gives a nod to the books and photographs that neatly line his office walls when talking about the orderliness that it helped instill.

He fondly recalls going to the group's National Jamboree in 1960 and thinks he still could cook up a mean coffee-can souffle. Sellers has helped start a troop named after Camp Brownlee, the blacks-only scout camp he attended as a young man.

The men who led his troop were father figures, which is what many youth lack today, Sellers said.

Sellers was the only person convicted following the Feb. 8, 1968, Orangeburg shootings, which took place during protests over a bowling alley owner's refusal to allow blacks inside. Three died and 27, including Sellers, were wounded.

He spent seven months in jail and was pardoned 23 years after his conviction.

During the time in between, Sellers worked as a coordinator for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and sat in on planning sessions with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. However, he knows that his link to the Orangeburg Massacre is how he is best known.

"There's a certain level of humility that makes me reluctant about being the face of Orangeburg, but I figure if nobody's the face then the story doesn't get told," Sellers said.

While the shooting might not be known as well outside the state as in South Carolina, Columbia University history professor Manning Marable said it was an important part of civil rights history.

While the state has formally apologized for the shootings, Sellers believes that, 39 years later, they still merit a closer look by authorities. He said he has mixed feelings about the possibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation reopening the case. The FBI has said it will reopen some Civil Rights era cases, but has not yet added the Orangeburg shootings to that list.

"I say Orangeburg is the litmus test for race," Seller said. "If we can't be honest and genuine and get to the facts and get to the trust and get justice, then how can we talk about anything else?"