Friendship Nine, sometimes called Rock Hill Nine, were a group of nine African American men who were jailed after sitting down at a lunch counter where only white people were allowed in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in 1961. At that time, many facilities in the United States, especially in the South, were racially segregated, and Black people were prohibited from using them. The protest, called a sit-in, was among a number of similar demonstrations throughout the South around this time. These protest groups were inspired by the Greensboro Four, a group of four African American college students who sat down in protest at a “whites-only” lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. The Friendship Nine became the first sit-in demonstrators to choose to serve jail time rather than pay a fine.
Thomas Gaither, a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights organization, organized the Rock Hill sit-in to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in. Gaither recruited nine students from Friendship Junior College (now closed) in Rock Hill. The students were John Gaines; Clarence Graham; W. T. “Dub” Massey; Willie McCleod; Robert McCullough; Charles Taylor; James Wells; David Williamson, Jr.; and Mack Workman. The group planned the sit-in for several months. On Jan. 31, 1961, the 10 men sat at a lunch counter reserved for white customers at McCrory’s, a variety store in Rock Hill. As soon as they sat down, they were removed from the store by waiting police officers, arrested, and taken to jail.
The next day, the 10 men were convicted of trespassing and of breach of the peace. They were sentenced to pay a $100 fine each or serve 30 days hard labor at the York County Prison Camp. Taylor, concerned about losing his athletic scholarship at Friendship, paid his bail and was released. The nine others refused to pay their fines and chose to serve their jail time. The men twice were placed in solitary confinement and their food was restricted to bread and water. Prison officials claimed they defied orders to cease singing hymns and refused to work. The men served 28 days at the camp and were released.
The Friendship Nine gained nationwide attention. While the group served out its sentence, a number of other sit-ins and protests took place in Rock Hill in support of the Friendship Nine. The protests continued in Rock Hill through the spring and summer of 1961.
The Friendship Nine’s choice of “jail, no bail,” a strategy advocated by the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., became important during the civil rights movement. The strategy was later adopted by other activists. In 1964, passage of the Civil Rights Act banned the segregation of public facilities. In 2015, a South Carolina circuit court overturned the convictions of the Friendship Nine, vacating (canceling) their sentences.
