Speaker 1: On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: I introduced to you John Gains, Thomas Gaither, Clarence Graham,
Speaker 1: Willie McLeod, Robert McCuller, Willie Massey, James Wells, David Williamson,
Speaker 1: and Mac Workman the Friendship nine.
Speaker 2: I didn't know. Maybe I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, Cumberland Courts to
Speaker 1: beg ZACH, which was a Rocks throw away from the
Speaker 1: illustrious North Carolina Anti State University, the largest public HBCU
Speaker 1: in these United States of America, also the home of
Speaker 1: the ant four Z L. Blair, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil,
Speaker 1: and David Richmond, the four Aggie students that sat at
Speaker 1: the segregated lunch counter in Woolworth's Downtown Greensboro Row February first,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty.
Speaker 2: Now, what I wasn't familiar.
Speaker 1: With was the story of the ten brothers that attended
Speaker 1: Friendship Junior College, who would have a similar powerful sit
Speaker 1: in at McCrory's segregated lunch counter.
Speaker 2: One hundred miles south of A and T.
Speaker 1: Just one year later, January thirty first, nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: the ten gentlemen walked into the McCrory segregated restaurant ordered cheeseburgers,
Speaker 1: soft drinks, and coffees. Of course, they would deny service
Speaker 1: and they were asked to leave. When they declined, they
Speaker 1: were arrested. They got charged with trespassing and breach of order.
Speaker 1: Please see episode three oh eight of this season to
Speaker 1: remember where no trespassing laws originated. They were ordered to
Speaker 1: spend thirty days in jail in the York County Prison,
Speaker 1: or they could pay the one hundred dollar fine and
Speaker 1: be sent on their way. What made the Friendship nines
Speaker 1: sit in so different was because they activated the new
Speaker 1: method of resistance that was supported by doctor Martin Luther King.
Speaker 1: It will call jail no bail where you take the
Speaker 1: jail time and you declined to find where you basically
Speaker 1: concede in guilt. And I know somebody out there saying, wait, Dot,
Speaker 1: you said ten boys went into that mccrary's why they're
Speaker 1: the Friendship nine because nine of them said they was
Speaker 1: gonna take the jail no bail punishment. The tenth member
Speaker 1: Charles Taylor. He paid his one hundred dollars Baill because
Speaker 1: he ain't want to mess up and lose his football
Speaker 1: scholarship man. The Friendship nine did. They thirty days and
Speaker 1: it was tough. They had hard labor, solitary confinement. They
Speaker 1: had food rations to the point where they just went
Speaker 1: on a food fast. There was a story documented that
Speaker 1: a prisoner in a cell beside theirs actually slid them
Speaker 1: a baby ruth and split it up into eight pieces,
Speaker 1: which was strange to me when I read that story,
Speaker 1: because I said, what happened to the ninth piece? The
Speaker 1: story goes, they have to share that baby ruth for
Speaker 1: three days. I know you think I'm cap Google it yourself.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and seven, forty six years later, the
Speaker 1: city of rock Hill unveiled a marker right outside the
Speaker 1: old McCrory's in the honor of the Friendship nine. Eight
Speaker 1: of the men were still living and present at the ceremony,
Speaker 1: And now that I think about it, it was probably
Speaker 1: the eight men that had the baby routh. Now one
Speaker 1: thirty five East Main Street in rock Hill, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: where the McCrory's once stood, is a nice building and
Speaker 1: in the hallway of this building. They dedicated a museum
Speaker 1: to the Friendship nine, where it actually documents their.
Speaker 2: Thirty days of madness. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, all their convictions were overturned. The judge
Speaker 1: at that time was John C. Hayes, the Third, and
Speaker 1: he said, we can't rewrite history, but we can write history.
Speaker 2: And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: I