Cleveland Sellers (born November 8, 1944) is an American educator and civil rights activist who served as a key figure in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the 1960s. He is best known for his involvement in the struggle for racial equality and for his connection to the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre.
Born in Denmark, South Carolina, Sellers became active in the Civil Rights Movement while a student at Howard University. As the national program director for SNCC, he participated in several major initiatives, including the Mississippi Freedom Summer and voter registration drives across the Southern United States. He worked closely with other prominent activists, such as Stokely Carmichael, during the transition of SNCC toward the Black Power movement.
On February 8, 1968, Sellers was present during a protest against a segregated bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The event escalated when state highway patrol officers fired into a crowd of protesters on the campus of South Carolina State University, killing three students and wounding 28 others in what became known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Sellers himself was wounded by gunfire. In the legal aftermath, he was the only individual convicted of crimes related to the incident, charged with inciting a riot. He served seven months in prison.
Following his release, Sellers pursued an academic career. He earned a Master's degree in education from Harvard University and a Doctorate in education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 1993, he was granted a full pardon by the South Carolina Board of Paroles and Pardons, which acknowledged the injustice of his prior conviction.
Sellers later served as the director of the African American Studies Program at the University of South Carolina and was appointed president of Voorhees College in 2008, a position he held until his retirement in 2016. His autobiography, The River of No Return: The Autobiography of a Black Militant and the Life and Death of SNCC, provides a historical account of his experiences within the movement.