Cleveland Sellers, worked closely with Stokely Carmichael, who he says had an admiration for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and that antagonism between the two was a myth. He discusses Dr. King’s reaction to Black Power, the goal of getting Dr. King to speak out against the war in Vietnam, and the importance of people like Ella Baker, and her work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940’s to the Civil Rights Movement.

Cleveland Sellers was born November 8, 1944, in Denmark, South Carolina, which is where his activism began. Sellers entered Howard University in 1963 and joined the Nonviolent Action Group (NAP), an affiliate of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). After working on voting registration drives in Mississippi, Sellers was elected as SNCC’s program secretary in 1965. In February 1968, the Orangeburg Massacre changed Sellers’ life. Sellers was protesting alongside more than 100 students at South Carolina State campus when nine State Highway patrolmen opened fire killing 3, and wounding Sellers and 27 others. Sellers was later convicted of inciting the protests and served 17 months in prison before being released. He was pardoned by the state in 1993. Sellers went on to earn a Master’s in Education from Harvard and later his Ed.D. in History at UNC at Greensboro. He served as director of African American Studies at the University of South Carolina and in 2008 was selected as president of Voorhees College until retiring in 2016.

From the HBO / Kunhardt Film Foundation (KFF) Documentary “King in the Wilderness” that follows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the last years of his life: from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in 1968, through personal stories of the people who were around him.

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Cleveland Sellers, Program Director, SNCC
Interviewed By: Trey Ellis
Interview Date: May 11, 2017

Chapters:
00:00 Meeting Dr. King
09:44 SCLC and SNCC
17:26 Watts Riot and Northern Violence
37:20 Stokely Carmichael
57:05 James Meredith
01:14:25 Black Power
01:41:47 Riverside Speech
01:56:25 Canton Riots
01:59:02 Debates with Dr. King
02:18:23 FBI
02:35:03 After Dr. King’s Assasination
02:41:30 Hope and Faith
02:48:00 Misconception About Dr. King


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