A South Carolina judge has righted a historic injustice by clearing the records of 9 black men convicted in 1961 of trespassing and breach of peace for sitting at a “whites only” lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The men — a CORE organizer and 8 college students at the time — are known as the “Friendship 9,” refused to pay fines, going to jail instead, inaugurating the tactic that became known as “Jail, No Bail” which was soon adopted by the broader civil rights movement. The tactic shifted the financial burden of civil rights arrests from activists who had been posting bail and paying fines to segregationist authorities who had to pay for their upkeep in jails across the South.
