Orangeburg is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population of the city was 13,964 according to the 2020 census. The city is located 37 miles southeast of Columbia, on the north fork of the Edisto River.
Two historically black institutions of higher education are located in Orangeburg: Claflin University (a liberal arts college) and South Carolina State University (a public university).
History
18th century European settlement in this area started in 1704 when George Sterling set up a post here for fur trade with Native Americans. To encourage settlement, the General Assembly of the Province of South Carolina in 1730 organized the area as a township, naming it Orangeburg for William IV, Prince of Orange, the son-in-law of King George II of Great Britain. In 1735, a colony of 200 Swiss, German and Dutch immigrants formed a community near the banks of the North Edisto River. The site was attractive because of the fertile soil and the abundance of wildlife. The river provided the all-important transportation waterway to the port of Charleston on the Atlantic coast for the area's agriculture and lumber products, and for shipping goods upriver. The town soon became a well-established and successful colony, composed chiefly of small yeomen farmers.
Orangeburg's first church was established by a German Lutheran congregation. It later identified as an Anglican Church, which was the established church and exempt from colonial taxation. The church building was erected prior to 1763 in the center of the village; it was destroyed by fighting during the Revolutionary War. A new church was built; during the Civil War, it was used as a smallpox hospital by General William Tecumseh Sherman on his march through with Union forces.
19th century After the American Revolution, the character of the county changed dramatically. Invention by Eli Whitney of a mass-produced cotton gin for processing short-staple or "green seed" cotton made this type of cotton profitable. It was easily grown in the upland areas, and the county was rapidly developed into large cotton plantations. Agricultural labor was provided by enslaved African Americans, many brought into the area in a forced migration from the coastal areas or the Upper South via the domestic slave trade. Slaves became the majority of population in the county and city.
Freed after the Civil War, blacks began to gain educations, and two colleges were established in the city, the second designated as a land grant institution for all black students in the state under segregation. Blacks were also subject to Jim Crow laws passed by the Democrat-dominated state legislature; they were deprived of their ability to vote by South Carolina's disenfranchising constitution passed at the turn of the 20th century, which erected barriers to voter registration.
In 1919, the Orangeburg Regional Medical Center opened.
20th century
Efforts by blacks to regain civil rights increased in the postwar period after World War II. In the 1960s, Orangeburg was a major center of Civil Rights Movement activities by students from both Claflin College and South Carolina State College as well as black residents of the city. After the US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) declaring segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, local blacks sought integration of local schools in 1956. Whites retaliated economically, sometimes firing activists or evicting them from rental housing. College students came to their support with hunger strikes, boycotts, and mass marches. In 1960, over 400 students were arrested on sit-ins and integration marches organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
In August 1963, the Orangeburg Freedom Movement (OFM), chaired by Harlowe Caldwell of the NAACP, submitted 10 pro-integration demands to the Orangeburg Mayor and City Council. After negotiations failed, mass demonstrations similar to those in the Birmingham campaign in Alabama resulted in more than 1,300 arrests. Local efforts to end segregation in public places continued, particularly after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
On February 8, 1968, after days of protests against a de facto segregated bowling alley, violence broke out near the bowling alley as police attacked Black students from South Carolina State. Police opened fire on a crowd of students, killing Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith, and Delano Middleton, and wounding 27 others in what became known as the "Orangeburg Massacre"."History & Timeline", Civil Rights Movement Archive
21st century In May 2000, the city created the Orangeburg County Community of Character initiative. It is a collaborative effort in community development by the Downtown Orangeburg Revitalization Association (DORA), The Times and Democrat newspaper, the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce, and the Orangeburg County Development Commission. In 2005, the National Civic League awarded Orangeburg County the All-America City Award which recognizes and encourages civic excellence. It honors communities in which citizens, government, businesses, and non-profit organizations demonstrate successful resolution of critical community issues.
In 2007, Orangeburg hosted the first Democratic U.S. presidential candidate debate of the campaign season at Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium on the campus of South Carolina State University; future president Barack Obama was one of the debaters. In 2021, President Joe Biden visited Orangeburg to deliver a commencement address at South Carolina State.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.3 square miles (21.5 km2), of which 8.3 square miles (21.5 km2) is land and 0.12% is water.
Climate The climate in this area is characterized by relatively high temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Orangeburg has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Orangeburg, South Carolina – racial and ethnic compositionRace / ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)3,7582,8912,23729.44%20.70%16.90%Black or African American alone (NH)8,57710,41110,11967.19%74.56%76.43%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1724480.13%0.17%0.36%Asian alone (NH)1452312771.14%1.65%2.09%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)57140.04%0.05%0.11%Other race alone (NH)3012360.24%0.09%0.27%Mixed-race or multiracial (NH)681222490.53%0.87%1.88%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1652662601.29%1.90%1.96%Total12,76513,96413,240100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, there were 13,240 people, 4,628 households, and 2,283 families residing in the city. The median age was 31.5 years. 19.0% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.4% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 81.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 77.1 males age 18 and over.
99.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.2% lived in rural areas.
There were 4,628 households in Orangeburg, of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 24.5% were married-couple households, 22.3% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 48.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 38.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 5,621 housing units, of which 17.7% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.2% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.1%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 2,268 17.1% Black or African American 10,186 76.9% American Indian and Alaska Native 52 0.4% Asian 279 2.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 15 0.1% Some other race 140 1.1% Two or more races 300 2.3%
2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 13,964 people, 4,512 households, and 2,526 families residing in the city. The population density was 1648.8 There were 5,168 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 75.04% African American, 19.2% White, 0.18% Native American, 1.74% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.79% from other races, and 1.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.9% of the population.
There were 4,421 households, out of which 18.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.5% were married couples living together, 18.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.0% were non-families. 35.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.88.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 17.7% under the age of 18, 28.6% from 18 to 24, 21.0% from 25 to 44, 17.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 100 females, there were 76.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 71.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,306, and the median income for a family was $37,008. Males had a median income of $30,310 versus $21,935 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,263. About 17.9% of families and 24.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.7% of those under age 18 and 14.8% of those age 65 or over. Government and crime
Government
The city operates under the council-manager form of government. The governing body is composed of a mayor and six members. The mayor is determined through a nonpartisan, at-large election for a four-year term of office while Council Members are chosen through nonpartisan, single-member district (SMD) elections. Council members are elected to staggered four-year terms of office.
The city council is a legislative body, establishing policies with recommendations from the professional city administrator, who is hired by the council. The city administrator acts as the chief administrator of the council's policies implemented through the administrative control of city departments given to him by ordinance.
Mayor Michael C. Butler
Council members Richard F. Stroman Charles W. Jernigan Charles B. Barnwell, Jr. Bernard Haire L. Zimmerman Keitt (mayor pro tem) Sandra P. Knotts
State senators Brad Hutto Vernon Stephens
Crime The following table shows Orangeburg's crime rate in six crimes that Morgan Quitno uses in its calculations for "America's most dangerous cities" rankings, in comparison to 10,000 people. The statistics provided are not for the actual number of crimes committed, but for the number of crimes committed per capita.
Crime Orangeburg, SC (2009) per 10,000 people Murder 1 .75 Rape 9 6.78 Robbery 36 25.61 Assault 35 26.36 Burglary 232 174.73 Automobile theft 65 48.95 Arson 2 1.51
Education
Colleges and universities Claflin University, founded in 1869, is the oldest historically black university in the state of South Carolina. In 2014 it was ranked by Washington Monthly as the top liberal arts college in the state and the top HBCU in the country."Claflin University Receives Top State HBCU Ranking by Washington Monthly" , Claflin University, August 28, 2014 South Carolina State University is a 4-year public historically Black institution in Orangeburg, founded in 1896. Orangeburg–Calhoun Technical College is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to award associate degrees.
Public schools Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three Consolidated School District Four Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five