This landmark legislation outlawed segregation in public places and prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Despite the federal law, local resistance in Orangeburg persisted.

In Orangeburg, businesses such as the All-Star Bowling Lanes continued to defy desegregation mandates. Civil rights activists, including students from South Carolina State College and Claflin University, led protests and sit-ins to challenge these violations. These efforts reflected the ongoing struggle to enforce civil rights laws at the local level, where resistance to change was entrenched.

Though these protests in 1964 were nonviolent, they set the stage for escalating tensions that culminated in the tragic Orangeburg Massacre in 1968, when police shot and killed three unarmed Black students during another round of protests for equal rights and access to public spaces.