"Friendship-Nine" (1961)

Was a group of African American men who went to jail after staging a sit-in at a segregated McCrory's lunch counter in Rock Hill,South Carolina in 1961.The group gained nationwide attention because they followed an untried strategy called "Jail,No Bail,"which lessened the huge financial burden civil rights groups were facing as the sit-in movement spread across the South.They became known as the Friendship Nine because eight of the nine were students at Rock Hill's Friendship Junior College.They are sometimes referred to as the Rock Hill Nine.
The first sit-in happened in February 1960 when four African American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College sat down at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro,North Carolina.The movement spread across the South,reach Rock Hill on February 12,when about 100 African American students staged sit-ins at various downtown lunch counters.Over the next,year,several sit-ins were held in the city.
On January 31,students from Friendship Junior College and other picketed McCrory's on Main Street in Rock Hill to protest the segregated lunch counters at the business.They walked in,took seats at the counter and ordered hamburgers,soft drinks and coffee.They students were refused service and ordered to leave.When they didn't they were arrested.The next day,10 were convicted of treassing and breach of the peace and sentenced to serve 30 days in jail to a $100 fine.One man paid a fine,the remaining nine eight of  whom were friendship students-chose to take the sentence to serve 30 days hard labor at the York County Prison Farm.Their choosing jail over a fine or bail marked a first in the civil rights movement and sparked the "jail,no bail"strategy that came to be emulated in other places.A growing number of people participated in the sit-ins and marches that continued in Rock Hill through the spring and into the summer.Since these protesters chose prison instead of bail,they were sent to a work camp,where twice they refused to work,were put on bread and water as punishment.
In 2007 the city of Rock Hill unveiled a historic marker honoring the Friendship Nine at a reception honoring the men.At that time,eight of the Friendship Nine were living.
1.Robert McCllough (died on August 7,2006)
2.John Gaines
3.Thomas Gaither (at the time,he was a field secretary with the Congress of Raciial Equality and was the only one of the nine who was not a Friendship Student)
4.Clarence Graham
5.James Wells
6.David Williams Jr
7.Mack Workman