COLUMBIA, S.C. — Nine black men arrested for integrating a whites-only South Carolina lunch counter 54 years ago may be heroes in the historic record, but in the record of the law, they are still convicted trespassers.
On Wednesday, a prosecutor is expected to ask a judge to vacate the arrests and convictions of the men known as the Friendship Nine.
The eight students at Rock Hill’s Friendship Junior College were led in the 1961 incident by Thomas Gaither, who came to town as an activist with the Congress of Racial Equality.
Convicted of trespassing and breach of peace, the men opted for a month’s hard labor in a chain gang rather than allow bail money to be posted for them by civil rights groups. They did not want to contribute to the coffers of segregationists. The Associated Press; Rock Hill Herald file photo
