On February 8, 1968, South Carolina Highway Patrol officers opened fire on student protesters at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg after demonstrations against a segregated bowling alley, killing Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith, and Delano Middleton and wounding 28 others. Known as the Orangeburg Massacre, the shooting occurred more than two years before Kent State but received far less national attention. Although no officers were convicted, the event became a major moment in the civil rights movement, and the university campus today honors the victims with monuments, historical markers, and the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Legacy Plaza.