Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

In 1970, as the country was roiling over the Vietnam War, the Ohio National Guard shot at a group of unarmed protesters at Kent State University.

Nine students were wounded. Four died. The photo of a protester screaming

over the body of a student became an iconic image of a chaotic time. But this isn't

another story about the Kent State Massacre, as awful as it was. It's about a campus massacre that happened two years earlier.

In 1968, when police shot at and killed student protesters in an episode few people remember.

27 students, that's right, 27 were wounded.

Three died.

It was absolutely horrific.

The shooting took place at South Carolina State University,

a historically black college in Orangeburg,

and it barely made national news. The events that led up

to what's known as the Orangeburg Massacre began on a Monday in February of 1968. Black students

at South Carolina State were trying to desegregate the All-Star Bowling All-Lalley, an all-white establishment.

The bowling alley's owner defied federal law and refused.

The next day, the students tried again and were again turned away.

Police arrested 20 students. When word of the arrest for each campus, 600 students

marched to the bowling alley to demand the release of the protesters. This time, 150 police

officers responded. Civil rights leader Cleveland Sellers later recounted how officers came armed with

wooden batons, some of them three feet long. They went into the crowd swinging, hitting female

students across their heads and backs. The next day, South Carolina Governor Robert E. McNair ordered more officers and 250 National Guardsmen to the scene.

The following day, tensions hit a tipping point.

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