Famed SC civil rights protesters have convictions erased

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A judge has tossed out the convictions of nine South Carolina black men who integrated a whites-only lunch counter during the height of the civil rights movement.

Judge Mark Hayes today made the ruling for the men known as the Friendship 9.

"We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history," the judge said. He then signed the order, and the prosecutor apologized to the men.

Fifty-four-years ago, eight college students and one civil rights organizer were convicted of trespassing and protesting at McCrory variety store in Rock Hill.

The men's refusal to pay bail money into the segregationist town's city coffers served as a catalyst for other civil disobedience. Inspired by their courage, demonstrators across the South adopted their "jail not bail" tactic and filled jail cells. The media attention helped turn scattered protests into a nationwide movement.

W.T. "Dub" Massey and seven other students at Rock Hill's Friendship Junior College — Willie McCleod, Robert McCullough, Clarence Graham, James Wells, David Williamson Jr., John Gaines and Mack Workman — were encouraged to violate the town's Jim Crow laws by Thomas Gaither, who came to town as an activist with the Congress of Racial Equality.