Members of Friendship Nine Remember Clarence Graham

ROCK HILL, SC – A group of civil rights pioneers are remembering one of their own tonight. Clarence Graham, who was part of the Friendship 9, passed away Friday.
“He was passionate about the movement. And he wanted to make a difference,” says Friendship 9 member David Williamson Jr.
Members say years after the sit-in, Graham continued pushing hard to make sure people knew their story.
“He helped hold it together. Helped us build up on it,” says Friendship 9 member Willie McCleod.
Graham was 73. He and the rest of the group played an important role in the local civil rights movement when they sat down and refused to get up from a whites-only lunch counter in downtown Rock Hill.
Saturday, flowers and a glass of lemonade, his favorite drink, were placed in front of the chair where he sat January 31, 1961.
Graham and the eight others took 30 days hard labor on the York County Chain Gang rather than pay bail.
Last year, a judge threw out their convictions.
And now their story is known through a children’s book, a play, and is part of an exhibit at the Levine Museum in Uptown.
Graham’s fellow Friendship 9 members say those things will help keep his name alive.