Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.

by Adam Parker

Cleveland Sellers Jr. was the scapegoat for one of the bloodiest civil rights events of the 1960s. In 1968 state troopers gunned down black students protesting the segregation of a South Carolina bowling alley, killing three and injuring 28. The Orangeburg Massacre was one of the most violent moments of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, and only one person served prison time in its a young black man by the name of Cleveland Sellers Jr. Many years later, the state would recognize that Sellers was a scapegoat in that college campus tragedy and would issue a full pardon. *Outside Agitator* is the story of a Sellers’ early organizing a lunch counter sit-in as a 15-year-old in the tiny South Carolina town of Denmark, registering voters in Alabama and Mississippi, refusing the Vietnam War draft, serving as national program director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and working alongside 1960s civil rights icons Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., H. Rap Brown and Malcolm X. It's also the story of his lifelong struggle to overcome the Orangeburg incident and his slow crawl to justice. That journey takes him to Harvard University, then to a hard-fought position in civil service in Greensboro, North Carolina. And in a triumphant end to his career, a major Southern university elevates Sellers to chair its African-American Studies program, and the historically black college in his hometown respectfully calls him to be its president.

Adam Parker’s incisive biography is about a proud black man who refuses to be defeated, whose tumultuous life story personifies America’s continuing civil rights struggle.

Genres: History

240 pages, Paperback

Published November 6, 2018

Reviews

[Tony Bartelme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam Parker did a remarkable job tracing the rise and fall and rise of Cleveland Sellers, an underappreciated hero of the Civil Rights era. Outside Agitator is full of lessons that we're still learning to day about the legacy of slavery -- an important book for anyone interested in gaining new insights into a remarkable period in history.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure where I heard of this or why I selected it to read but I am really glad I did. I had never heard of Cleveland Sellers Jr but as I began the book I thought I wouldn't learn anything about the civil rights era that I didn't already know other than who this young man was. (Silly me!) There was so much here that I was unaware of (riots in Cambridge Maryland and details about the Orangeburg massacre to name just two events). I thought the author did an excellent job of summarizing the history of a man who was right there when so much happened and sharing how he continued and continues to make a contribution.

[Veronica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling biography about a man who gave most of his life to the struggle for racial equality, yet who history has left behind. The Orangeburg massacre was the earliest campus shootings involving law enforcement but never received the attention that Kent State got. The untold stories of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. A must read!

[Dennis Garone · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Bakari Sellers’ recent book, I became intrigued with his father’s story and his place in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.

Parker’s book popped up in a search and a few reviews (mostly good).

I was not disappointed as Mr Parker told an abridged yet thorough biography of an underrated and brave soul who fought with ferocity and dignity against one of the worst injustices our country perpetuates. Quick read and a great jumping off point to read about the many people Cleveland Sellers Jr. came in contact with during his activist days.

[Livvy Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a much wider, more complex view of the civil rights movement that I did not receive during my K-12 education. I enjoyed Bakari Sellers' book so getting to see his father's story was very engaging. I also got a broader view of the Orangeburg Massacre, an event that should be taught in schools, especially here in South Carolina.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone's heard of Kent State. No one remembers the Orangeburg Massacre, the first deadly confrontation between university students and law enforcement in United States history. Cleveland Sellers was there. This was a terrific biography of a man I'd never heard about during my South Carolina public school education. Many thanks to Parker and the independent press who published this.

[Marion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cleveland Sellers is the real deal, one of the original civil rights activists in the agonizing 60s. I read this after reading his son Bakari’s My Vanishing Country.