ROCK HILL, SC – It took 54 years. But Wednesday, a judge threw out the convictions of Rock Hill’s Friendship Nine.
“We cannot re-write history. But we can right history,” said Judge John Hayes, III.
The student protestors were arrested and sentenced to hard labor after staging a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter in downtown Rock Hill. The group is known as the first to take “jail, no bail”–instead serving 30 days in a York County prison camp.
“After all this time. And here we are before the globe, being respected. And we never thought that that would happen,” said protestor Charles Jones.
The eight surviving members of the group attended the hearing, along with Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your sacrifice. For your bravery. For your courage. And now you have your dignity restored,” King told the group.
