Book explores civil rights movement; Delano Middleton's story shared through fiction

May 29—Zachary Middleton finds it important to connect the dots between the historic civil rights movement and contemporary youth culture. He hopes his new historical fiction book which explores the life of his great uncle who died in the Orangeburg Massacre will help him do that.

On Feb. 8, 1968, three students were killed and 28 others were injured when S.C. Highway Patrol troopers opened fire on a crowd of protesters following three nights of escalating racial tension over efforts to desegregate the All-Star Triangle Bowl.

South Carolina State College students Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond, along with 19-year-old Wilkinson High School student Delano Middleton, were killed.

Delano Middleton was the uncle of Zachary's father, Alonzo Middleton, a longtime Orangeburg businessman who recently retired after 36 years in the insurance business.

Zachary said his self-published book "Running After Delano" focuses on Delano's life through the lens of Alonzo, who was just 10 when Delano was killed.

"It's about the personhood of Delano Middleton. Who was he as a person? I had a chance to sit down with about 22 people who were alive during that time period, knew the community and knew him," Middleton said.

"I wanted our young people to be able to connect the dots between the historic civil rights movement and what's going on right now. So there are a lot of ways in which I try to do that within the story, but I try to at least keep it to the integrity of real events that happened during that time," he said.

The 33-year-old continued, "The timeline has been set up between like a six-month period, but it focuses on just kind some of his ups and downs. I wanted to tell it through the lens of my father, through the lens of a 10-year-old, similar to kind of like a 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' or 'Monday's Not Coming,' having a young person's purview be what structures something that's a very deep subject matter, something that is really tough."

In the book, which is a little over 100 pages long, he explores who Delano was from those who knew him best.

"Delano was the person who steered the plow for the family. He was a person who had a sense of humor. He was a person who was about 6-4" or 6-5". According to people that were close to him, he was sprouting up. His best friend said he was recruited by Kansas State to play football.

"One of the things he shared was the fact that he had dreams. He wanted to own property, he wanted to get a type of household that was behind Whittaker. Whittaker is what was to the African-Americans of that time kind of the place of prominence," Middleton said.

"Those are the stories that have never been shared, and I think that what that does is help the young people see and say, 'Hey, I can be a good steward of my life. You never know how long you've got, but I can pursue progress.' So that's the hope," he said.

Middleton said his book is among the first books which will be released for a company he started.

"It's going to be one of the starting books for a company I started called Grace to Cultivate LLC. We'll be doing a lot of things. We're an imagination brand, and we'll be doing a lot of things from a writing standpoint and a social media standpoint," he said.

Middleton said while realizes that the Orangeburg Massacre represented a painful part of history, particularly for his father, there were ways to get past the hurt and do productive things for the community going forward.

"That's actually a part of the end of the book. At the end of the book, one of the things that I do is be intentional about showing that story as well, the picture of the fact that my dad came back to his hometown in Orangeburg. He and my mom had a business for 36 years. That's an incredible tribute," Middleton said.

"They got married at Greater Faith Baptist Church, where I'm an associate minister. In that same church, they have been committed and been committed to the community and the people here in Orangeburg. So that's definitely a part of the story," he said.

Middleton's book can be purchased through Amazon at the following link: www.amazon.com/Running-After-Delano-Zachary-Middleton-ebook/dp/B093PCQCZV. Fifteen percent of the net proceeds will go to Orangeburg-based charities.

Contact the writer: [email protected] or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD

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