All Star Bowling Lanes

National Register Listing

Street Address:

559 E. Russell St., Orangeburg, SC (Orangeburg County)

Alternate Name:

All Star Triangle Bowl

---

NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817738032

Description and Narrative:

The All Star Bowling Lanes and its parking lot is significant for its role in the confrontation at South Carolina State College during February of 1968, commonly referred to as the “Orangeburg Massacre.” Most of Orangeburg’s public accommodations desegregated soon after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the management of the All Star Bowling Lanes refused to do so claiming that such establishments were not covered under the new law. As the city’s only bowling alley, this segregationist policy inflamed local African-Americans, especially the students at S.C. State and Claflin. Desegregation attempts in the years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were unsuccessful. In 1968, protests occurred in the bowling alley on January 29 and February 5. On February 6 a violent confrontation occurred in the bowling alley’s parking lot. These events culminated two nights later with the shooting on the campus of S.C. State. The significance of the property is further increased by the ineligibility of other properties associated with the shooting at S.C. State due to demolition or loss of integrity. The bowling alley was built in the early 1960s as part of a shopping center development. The current commercial setting for the All Star Bowling Lanes is the same as its historic one. Listed in the National Register August 7, 1996.

Period of Significance:

1968

Level of Significance:

National

Area of Significance:

Ethnic Heritage: Black;Social History

National Register Determination:

listed

Date of Certification:

August 7 1996

---