Civil rights leaders were ecstatic over Gov. Mark Sanford's formal apology for state troopers who shot three protesters 35 years ago in what became known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

"I'm elated; it was a pleasant surprise," said Cleveland Sellers, a USC professor who organized civil rights demonstrations and led protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He was a leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

"What the governor did was a commendable step," said the Rev. Joe Darby, pastor of the Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston and a graduate of S.C. State University.

Sanford's apology came shortly after a memorial on the 35th anniversary of the Orangeburg Massacre. He did not attend, as he had Air Force Reserve duty.

"We don't just regret what happened in Orangeburg 35 years ago, we apologize for it," Sanford said in a statement released Saturday.

In an interview Monday, the governor said that at times, "we can become so myopic arguing over who is at fault, when we can avoid a lot of it by simply saying, 'Look, I'm very sorry.'‘"

Sanford said he could have taken the easier, safer route and said, "I regret" the incident. But that would have accomplished little, he said.

"People said you can't apologize, and I said, 'Why can't you?'‘" Sanford said. "Healing in the personal sense begins with saying, 'I'm sorry.' It's something I'm trying to teach my boys about."

At a memorial two years ago, then-Gov. Jim Hodges said the people of the state "deeply regret" the Orangeburg incident, but a spokesman said at the time it shouldn't be characterized as an apology.

Billy Boan, Hodges' chief of staff, said Monday that what Hodges did was appropriate, adding, "I don't know there's a nickel's worth of difference" between what the two governors said.

About 200 people attended a ceremony Saturday to honor the students who were slain.

In his statement, Sanford said his prayers and thoughts went out to the families of the men killed 35 years ago.

Maurice Washington, chairman of the S.C. State board of trustees, was surprised by Sanford's apology, even though he served on Sanford's transition team and had talked to the governor Saturday.

"Obviously, the governor knows the difference between making things right, rather than moving things over," Washington said. "We certainly welcome his statement and his apology on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina. I think it's great, really I do."

Darby, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he hopes the governor puts his money where his mouth is and backs up his apology with equitable funding for the school.

"The best apology is a tangible policy," he said. "South Carolina has never funded (S.C.) State as it should."

Sellers praised Sanford for taking "a tremendous first step" in bringing racial healing.

"We have been seeking to have the state address this issue, and to make that first step in terms of the apology; this gets us to the point where we can have dialogue and discussion."

Sellers declined to get into who did what first.

"For those who have been victimized by Orangeburg, this gives us a degree of hope that we recognize the incident for what it is," he said, "and we will do what we can to remember what happened so as not to allow it to happen again."

The incident started on Feb. 8, 1968, when protesters marched back to the S.C. State campus from an Orangeburg bowling alley where blacks were banned.

The men had gathered near a bonfire when a platoon of white highway patrolmen opened fire. The shots killed S.C. State students Henry Smith, 20, and Samuel Hammond, 19, and high school student Delano Middleton, 17.

Twenty-seven other students from S.C. State, neighboring Claflin University and an area high school were injured.

Nine patrolmen were indicted by a federal grand jury. All were acquitted. Many of them said students fired first and threw bricks and at least one Molotov cocktail. Students and protesters have denied that they were armed.