The Friendship Nine

Fifty-four years ago, nine back men sat down at a ‘whites only’ lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina and asked to be served. The lunch counter sit-ins that began in Greensboro, NC some years earlier had begun to lose steam, having devolved to a familiar formula – sit in, arrests, fines paid, done.

What was different about the Friendship Nine is that they decided that in order to have the most profound impact, they needed to put it on the line in the same way that Martin Luther King did in Birmingham, a sojourn that gave rise to some famous letters. So they decided not only to sit at the counter but to refuse to move when so ordered by the police, to demand their own arrests.

Then – and this was the capper - once they got to jail, they refused to pay their fines. This “jail, no bail” approach brought their protests immediate widespread coverage and put the issue of segregation right back where it belonged, in the spotlight. They did this at a time (1960) when people of color who stood up for their rights too frequently disappeared without a trace or found themselves struggling to breathe at the end of a rope under a gnarled branch while a small crowd of grinning yahoos looked on and cheered.

Now, according to various news sources, the five survivors of the original nine are going to court to be exonerated for their crimes.

Exonerated for their crimes.        

Is it just me or is there something twisted about them needing to be exonerated for anything? Should not the city of Rock Hill and the State of South Carolina and every other city or county or parish or state that participated in these historical atrocities be offering their very public and abject apologies to these men and millions more?

Really, is it just me?