County officials pay tribute to family of Henry E. Smith

Henry E. Smith, a Marion native, was honored during this past week’s Marion County Council meeting for his stance taken in Orangeburg in 1968.
Smith’s sister and three cousins were at the Thursday night meeting to receive a resolution honoring Smith. Smith, from Marion, still has family who live and work in the county.

In an event that became known as the “Orangeburg Massacre,” Smith was one of three black men, who, on Feb. 8, 1968, died when law enforcement officers opened fire on a crowd of unarmed protesting students on the campus of the S.C. State College.

The event, the resolution says, took place on the “heels of two days of escalating violence between law enforcement and students protesting the segregation of a local bowling alley…”
Smith was born in Marion in December 1948, to David Smith Sr. and Elizabeth Fladger Smith. He was educated in the Marion public school system and was a Johnakin High School graduate, where he was third in his class of 1966.

“…Whereas the Marion County Council is mindful of the great sacrifice suffered by the victims and the victims’ families after this tragic event in the history of South Carolina; … Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Marion County Council does hereby publicly acknowledge the fundamental injustices, cruelty and inhumanity suffered upon the victims of the “Orangeburg Massacre,” the resolution concludes.

Council will present the family with a framed copy of the resolution commemorating Smith’s role in the 1968 civil rights action.
Additional stories about actions taken during Thursday’s council meeting appear elsewhere in this newspaper and online.