‘Friendship 9’ civil rights activists cleared of convictions for 1961 sit-in in South Carolina
The nine men refused to pay bail money after being accused of trespassing and breaching the peace during a sit-in at McCrory variety store in Rock Hill, S.C., sparking more civil disobedience protests.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 12:12 PM
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Now their convictions are history, too.
A South Carolina judge cleared the criminal records Wednesday of the “Friendship 9,” the civil rights pioneers arrested in 1961 for sitting at a whites-only lunch counter.
“We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history,” Judge Mark Hayes declared as he signed an order to vacate their convictions for trespassing and breaching the peace at the McCrory variety store in Rock Hill, S.C.
Courtroom spectators cheered and applauded as prosecutor Kevin Brackett apologized to the eight surviving members of the group.
JASON MICZEK/REUTERSFive members of the ‘Friendship 9’: Willie Thomas Massey (from left), Willie, E. McCleod, James F. Wells, Clarence Graham and David Williamson, Jr. sit at the lunch counter at Five & Dine diner in Rock Hill, S.C. in December 2014.
“Sometimes you just have to say you’re sorry,” said Brackett. “My heartfelt apologies for what happened in 1961.”
It was 54 years ago that eight students from Friendship Junior College, joined by an activist from the Congress for Racial Equality, took their seats at the segregated counter in McCrory and ordered lunch.
The defendants refused to pay bail money, inspiring a raft of similar civil disobedience protests during the height of the civil rights movement. The nine were sentenced to a month on a chain gang.
“It’s been a long wait,” said Clarence Graham, one of the Friendship 9. “We are sure now that we made the right decision for the right reason. Being nonviolent was the best thing that we could have done.”
THE HERALD/APIn this file photo from February 1960, people take part in a civil rights sit-in protest at the lunch counter in McCrory's in Rock Hill, S.C. A year later, the 'Friendship 9' would stage their own protest there.
ANDY BURRISS/APElwin Wilson (clockwise from left) Steve Coleman, David Williamson, Phyllis Hyatt, Elsie Springs, Patricia Sims and Willie McCleod talk about incidents during civil rights demonstrations in Rock Hill, S.C., in the 1960s.
One of the group, Robert McCullough, died in 2006. But his college classmates joined Graham at the symbolic court session: W.T. “Dub” Massey, Willie McCleod, Clarence Graham, James Wells, David Williamson Jr., John Gaines and Mack Workman.
CORE’s James Gaither, who encouraged the sit-in, was also in attendance. Their names are engraved on the stools at the counter in the Old Town Bistro, the current occupant of the space on Main St.
Graham said the group’s message of peaceful resolution still rings true, and encouraged protesters in the 21st century to follow their example from the ‘60s.
“Until the heart changes, there won’t be any change,” he said. “We still insist that non-violence is the way to go.”
