Friendship 9 changed history 54 years ago in Rock Hill

ROCK HILL, S.C. — UPDATE: The Friendship 9 will hold a reenactment and march Saturday morning at 8:30 to commemorate the anniversary of their sit-in at a Rock Hill restaurant. It will be held at the site of the former Friendship College at the corner of Black and Allen Streets in Rock Hill. Most of the members and their families and others, will walk to Main Street. The public is invited to line the streets.

Sitting at the very location where they were arrested 54 years ago -- their names now engraved on the seats -- four members of the so-called Friendship Nine recounted the moments of that January day in 1961.

"We were snatched up off these stools and arrested and taken to the back of this building, and that's where the jail was," Willie Massey said.
 
"The only thing we feared was the possibility of being killed, but after while we didn't let it cross our mind," David Williamson said.

The restaurant in downtown Rock Hill is now called Five and Dine, but in 1961 it was a McRory's convenience store with a lunch counter that was off-limits to blacks. 
 
A group of nine black students from nearby Friendship Junior College and their advisor decided they would be the first protesters to use a new jail no bail strategy.  When arrested for sitting at the counter they would spend 30 days in jail instead of paying a $100 fine into a system they said devalued them.  
 
"The jail doors slammed shut, and we're average age 18, so that was really devastating," said Massey.

PHOTOS: Friendship 9 changed history 54 years ago in Rock Hill
 
Once they served their 30 days on a chain gang, the men were released, but didn't really talk about the historic sit-in for years. 
 
Recently, the group attracted the attention of author Kimberly Johnson. She documented their story in a children's book called "No Fear for Freedom."
 
"And this really has become my passion," Johnson said.

She pressed the York County solicitor to throw out the men's convictions, which will officially happen Wednesday.
 
"I can't wait until Wednesday comes, and I can take the stripes off my back," said Williamson.
 
"We know that a lot of the folk in the state are not happy about this, so there is that little look over your shoulder feeling that we had even in 1961," said Clarence Graham, a Friendship Nine member.
 
"It was something that was done at the right time," Graham said. "I do believe that heaven smiles on this movement."

IMPORTANT NOTE: Channel 9 interviewed only four of the Friendship 9 because they are the only ones who could show for the interview; also one of them has passed away.  Another one of them was ill and a few others have wives that are chronically ill.

WSOC