Friday, February 02, 2007

Honoring the Friendship Nine

The Rock Hill (South Carolina) Herald has the story of Rock Hill's long overdue decision to erect a memorial to the friendship Nine, a group of students at what was then Friendship Junior College who began the sit-in movement in Rock Hill, which is about 25 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina and is increasingly taking on the shape of a suburb, or at least an exurb, of the Queen City.


One of the most significant aspects of the movement in Rock Hill is that it introduced, or at least marked the beginning of the establishment of a policy of "jail no bail" in which civil rights activists who found themselves under arrest would refuse bail in hopes of filling up the jails and stretching the system to its breaking point. The friendship Nine (who grew to number far, far more) feature prominently in one of the chapters of my freedom Ride manuscipt and in an article I had published last year. I am pleased to see them finally getting some public recognnition for their work.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quite an interesting blog...

dcat said...

Emmie --
Thank you very much. I hope you stop by regularly.
Cheers --
dcat

Anonymous said...

Yeah its really good to know that they got published...hard work pays off come whatever might be in the way :) best wishes!

dcat said...

Thanks, Robert.

Anonymous said...

very kewl, but give rock hill a little more credit than an exurb of the queen city!!:) very helpful with my project though!!;D thanks alot!!!!!!!!!:]

dcat said...

Rock Hill certainly had a more unique identity many years ago, and there still is a bit of space between Charlotte and Rock Hill, but realistically, especially with the growth of Charlotte's south side, Rock Hill really will be more and more of a suburb, albeit one with a unique identity compared to the bedroom communities and McMansions that grow elsewhere.

dcat

Anonymous said...

What is the name of your book with the chapter on friendship nine? And what is the name of the article you wrote on friendship nine?

dcat said...

My book is "Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides," and the relevant chapter is the chapter on the Carolinas, and especially the half on South Carolina. The article is “Into the Maw of Dixie: The Freedom Rides, The Civil Rights Movement, and the Politics of Race in South Carolina,” which appeared in The Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association 2005. It won the South Carolina Historical Association’s Hollis Award for the best article published in the Proceedings 2005-2007.

Best --
dcat