FILE - In this February 1960 file photo, people take part in a civil rights "sit-in" protest at the lunch counter in McCrory's in Rock Hill, S.C. A prosecutor on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, will argue a motion to vacate the convictions of a group known as the Friendship Nine. Eight Friendship Junior College students and a civil rights organizer were convicted of trespassing and breach of peace for staging a similar protest at the same lunch counter in 1961. The men opted for a month’s hard labor rather than allow bail to be posted for them by civil rights groups. (THE HERALD, FILE — AP Photo)

Righting History: ‘Friendship 9’ will have records cleared more than 50 years later

By Jackie Bridges / Special to Tell Us USA

ROCK HILL, SC - For more than five decades, the group of black men known as the “Friendship Nine” have had criminal records.

They were arrested and charged with trespassing Jan. 31, 1961, for sitting at a white lunch counter in Rock Hill, S.C.

On Jan. 28, their lawyer will file a motion in South Carolina’s 16th Circuit Court to vacate their trespassing conviction.

Shelby native and author Kim Johnson was the driving force behind getting their records cleared.

“We’ve got to honor what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for, and that was non-violence,” Johnson said. “Fifty-four years ago, they were arrested, and we should have taken care of it before now. This is a remarkable piece of history that we cannot forget.”

Staying in jail

Johnson wrote their story in a children’s book last year and reminded the community of the valuable part the men played in the Civil Rights Movement. The book explains that it was the first time any of those arrested for civil disobedience refused to pay the fine and took the prison sentence. The concept was called “Jail, No Bail,” and it had been proposed but everybody was scared to do it, Johnson said.

One of the men, Clarence Graham, said when his group was approached by Thomas Gaither, a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality, they decided to accept the no-bail challenge.



“We were going to stay in jail,” Graham previously told The Star. “It was very dangerous. We didn’t know what would happen, but something had to be done, and we had to do it.”

The morning they sat down at the lunch counter, he said, “We were literally dragged out of the store and into the jailhouse. We were guilty of trespassing.”

They were sentenced to 30 days on the chain gang and were released after 28 days.

Righting a wrong

Before Johnson learned about their story, it was mostly forgotten. To write her book, “No Fear for Freedom: The Story of the Friendship Nine,” she had to rely on the men’s accounts and newspaper stories.

After the book was published, she participated in a program at The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. She studied King’s philosophy on unjust laws after reading his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.”

According to an article from the South Carolina Public Library, Johnson brought evidence of the unjust laws used against the Friendship Nine to the attention of 16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett. He agreed with Johnson and determined that King was correct when he said in 1965 that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

The Herald in Rock Hill, S.C., reported in November that Circuit Court Judge John C. Hayes III, of Rock Hill — nephew of the original trial judge, the late Rock Hill City Judge Billy Hayes — will preside and make the judicial order to have the cases vacated. Retired S.C. Chief Justice Ernest Finney, of Sumter, S.C., the first black on South Carolina’s Supreme Court, who, in 1961, was the defense lawyer for the Friendship Nine, will again represent the eight surviving Friendship Nine members.

“There is no doubt that the laws were wrong then, and we went to jail knowing that we were right,” Graham told The Herald. “It is true that my record of fighting for freedom is a badge of honor. This way seems to be that we can all keep that badge; that history will not be erased or forgotten.”


Friendship Nine members from left, Charles Taylor, Clarence Graham, Thomas Gaither, Willie McCleod, Mack Workman, W.T. "Dub" Massey and David Williamson in 2011, 50 years after their lunch counter protests. (FILE, ANDY BURRISS — aburriss@heraldonline.com)

THE FRIENDSHIP NINE

The Friendship Nine protesters are Willie McCleod, Clarence Graham, David Williamson Jr., John Gaines, Mack Workman, Thomas Gaither, James Wells, W.T. “Dub” Massey and the late Robert McCullough. All except Great Falls’ native Gaither, a civil rights organizer, were teenage students raised in Rock Hill who were attending the all-black Friendship College when they were arrested. All were honored decades later by the city of Rock Hill. Stools with their names on them are still in use at the Five & Dine restaurant on Main Street in Rock Hill, where McCrory’s stood in 1961. A tenth man, Charles Taylor, was convicted but left jail after a few days because he would have lost a scholarship at school.

Source: The Herald in Rock Hill, S.C.

Events to honor Friendship Nine

After their records are cleared in court on Jan. 28, the members of Friendship Nine will speak to school children in Rock Hill on Jan. 29.

On Jan. 30, the world premiere of "No Fear for Freedom," the musical written by Shelby Native Kim Johnson and Bruce McKagan, will be held in McGirt Auditorium at what was once the only black high school in Rock Hill, Emmett Scott. The school building now serves as the Emmett Scott Recreation Center, 801 Crawford Road, Rock Hill, S.C. The production, which features students and community members, will be Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. and Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for the matinee are $15 for adults and $8 for youth and students and for the evening shows, $20 for adults and $10 for youth and students.

Proceeds will be used to help start the Friendship 9 foundation for scholarships for South Carolina students. For more information about the musical, visit www.nofearforfreedom.com

On Jan. 31, exactly 54 years after the men were arrested, they will walk one mile from Friendship Junior College to the Five and Dine on Main Street in Rock Hill, where McCrory’s stood in 1961, and take their seats at the lunch counter.

"As residents watch, they will sit down at the counter as free and cleared men," Johnson said.