Clark wasn't just receiving a degree. He was honoring history.
In 1968, three students—Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith—were killed during the Orangeburg Massacre, a largely forgotten tragedy in which state troopers opened fire on Black students peacefully protesting segregation at a local bowling alley. It happened two years before Kent State, but never received the same national spotlight.
Clark, then a young man himself, never forgot.
“I came back not just for me,” he said. “I came back for them.”
Decades later, with a lifetime of experience and determination in his heart, Clark returned to campus to finish the education that was interrupted by the struggle for civil rights. His graduation cap bore three names—Hammond, Middleton, and Smith—etched in gold.
His walk across the stage was more than ceremonial. It was redemptive.
In honoring the slain students, Clark gave breath to their silenced voices and brought light to a dark page in American history that too few remember.
“I may be 79,” he smiled, “but justice doesn’t age.”
And with that, he turned tassel and history alike.
