In 1963, Cleveland Sellers was an 18-year old Howard University student interested in civil rights, but it wasn’t until the months before the historic March on Washington that he felt called to join the join the nationwide push for equal rights that would soon transpire around the August march.
After graduation, the Denmark, S.C.-native would become a major figure in his home state’s movement toward civil rights. His participation in the protest that would lead to the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre would land him in jail for seven months on charges that would be pardoned two and a half decades later.
Today, Sellers is president of Vorhees College in Denmark, and his son, State Rep. Bakari Sellers, represents the Denmark area and is running for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.
They both sat down with the PBS NewsHour this week to discuss the legacy left behind a half century after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on the National Mall.
Love Best of Charleston?
Help the Charleston City Paper keep Best of Charleston going every year with a donation. Or sign up to become a member of the Charleston City Paper club.