Seeking ‘Justice’ in forgotten moments of tense American race relations

Bad documentaries have had their fair share of grade school screenings. Trying their absolute best not to fall asleep, students have suffered through educational videos on potential city bombings, human genetics, and teenage sexuality. Finally, it seems, something powerful has come to the scene.

A brand-new historical film airing on PBS, “Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968,” releases so much energy in its 59 minutes that its viewers will likely remember the line “No justice, no peace!” for the rest of their lives.

The documentary revisits one of the bloodiest, albeit least known, episodes of the Civil Rights era. More than a few Americans remember—or, at least, have heard of—the killing of four white students at Kent State University in 1970. But almost no one knows about the three black students killed at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg two years earlier.

“Scarred Justice” makes sure to teach its viewers as much as possible about the horrific crime. At the same time, the film explains how and why general knowledge of the incident has been so limited. In such a way, it is eerily reminiscent of the Chinese treatment of Tiananmen Square, a brutal event that few Chinese families discuss today. The film makes the United States’ apparent unwillingness to acknowledge its embarrassing racial past seem sickening. In addition, the film questions how Americans, as a people, can reconcile their discriminatory past with their discriminatory present.

Though Orangeburg was home to two historically black colleges and the majority of its population was African-American in 1968, its power rested solely in the hands of its white residents and politicians. The civil unrest caused by such a power dynamic escalated into full-blown chaos when, on Feb. 8, a black Vietnam War veteran was denied access to a bowling alley—one of the few town establishments still segregated.

When a crowd of more than 300 from South Carolina State College and Claflin University came to protest, the police rushed onto the scene and violence ensued. Officers beat two female students, shotgun fire from a fire truck left 28 students with multiple buckshot wounds, and three others were killed. Members of both the student body and the police force recount their experiences through interviews in the film.

Most histories of the civil rights movement have ignored the Orangeburg Massacre of 1968, yet many of those interviewed in the documentary remember the tragedy as if it happened moments ago. “Scarred Justice” brings this important segment of American history back to the table. To leave the Orangeburg Massacre out of history would be a crime as large as the tragic incident itself.

If “Scarred Justice” were to be shown in classrooms around the country, it probably would not be taken lightly. In fact, the film feels like a step in a new direction—that decade-defining movement of countercultural youth protest might just be on the rise again.