We remember one of the brave young black men who became known as the Friendship 9 in Rock Hill.
Thomas Gaither died Monday in Pennsylvania.
In 1961, he and eight others protested racial segregation in Rock Hill when they staged a sit-in at an all-white lunch counter. They were arrested and made history when they took the “jail, no bail” stance.
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Decades later, the men’s records were erased and their names placed on the seats at the same lunch counter where they were denied service.
Gaither lived to be 86 years old.
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