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.
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“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.
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The eight surviving members of the group attended the hearing, along with Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.Β
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“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.
