SC State's Website Features Marching 101's Trent Bryant

 

If you've been to SC State's website recently you have seen this image of a Marching 101 band member that some call the epitome of Bulldog Tenacity. 

Meet Trent Bryant, a senior mechanical engineering major from Georgetown, S.C. Bryant is one of the band's drum majors so he is front and center during performances. 

At an October 2024 home football game, he caught the eye of Sam Watson, director of university relations. Watson was taking photographs of the halftime show and snapped this focused, determined image of Trent in action. 

My feature writing students had the chance to interview Bryant in February. The students were assigned to write a feature about Bryant's 15 minutes of fame. I recorded his talk and had my radio production students produce an audio report. 

From the audio recording, here are three memorable comments Bryant shared about his unique experience appearing for several months on the school's homepage. 

Soundbite 1

Here's his first reaction when learning in December that he was on the website. 

Soundbite 2

When he looks at the image of himself, what does Bryant say was going through his mind at this moment in time? 

Soundbite 3

Bryant says it was in 2017 when he decided he had to be part of a university marching band.

Soundbite Selection Exercise: Orangeburg Native Reflects on February 1968 SC State Shootings

Note: This post was updated in February 2024

February 8, 1968 was a day of infamy for people in and around Orangeburg, S.C. On that evening the tragic event occurred that became immortalized as the Orangeburg Massacre. 

In 1968, Sandra Paul Miller (pictured left) was a junior at Wilkinson High School (now Orangeburg-Wilkinson H.S.). She knows all too well what happened that bloody night. She says, in fact, she likely would have been on the SC State campus among the 200 or so people gathered, except for her mother.

Listen to Ms. Miller's own voice here.
SOT: :06
Incue: It just so happens...
Outcue: I just missed it

My SC State students and I had the pleasure of meeting Miller when we went to the old All-Star Bowling Lanes to speak with Ellen Zisholtz who is leading an ambitious project to restore the bowling alley and also make the site on Russell Street a Civil Rights Museum. 

Miller is very excited about the plans to reopen the old bowling alley that was the impetus for the fatal shootings more than half a century ago when students from SC State and Claflin tried to integrate it. They just wanted to bowl but the White owner refused to let them in.  

Hear Miller here
SOT: :48
In: Well I tell you what...
Out: better for them

Three young men died as a result of law enforcement opening fire on the crowd of gatherers. What exactly sparked the barrage of gunfire is still disputed. Miller was a classmate of Delano Middleton, one of the three fatally shot victims. She shared this remembrance of the 17-year-old. She knew him from school.
                                        SOT: :14
                                        In: And it was a very sad day...
                                        Out: happened to him 

                                                    Delano Herman Middleton (1950-1968) 

Sandra Paul Miller's last words to us were that people today need to know what happened all those years ago. She says it's important...it's imperative...it's inspirational. 

February 1, 2024- students in my BC 203 Radio Production class visit the plaza where the busts of the three slain young men are immortalized on the SC State campus. 

(Note: Regarding the purpose of this class project, by selecting three soundbites from the Sandra Paul Miller interview, it will be easier next to write and produce a radio-style report with the student's voice and her SOTs combined to make a compelling report.)

To hear the full 7:30 interview, click here.