Famed SC civil rights protesters to have records erased

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Fifty-four years after they were sentenced to a month of hard labor in a chain gang for ordering lunch in South Carolina, nine black men are getting a new day in court.

A prosecutor was expected to ask a judge Wednesday to vacate the convictions of the men known as the Friendship Nine, who were arrested for integrating a whites-only lunch counter in the segregated town of Rock Hill.

The fact that these civil rights era crimes will no longer be on their records has brought mixed feelings to the men. Their refusal to pay bail money into the segregationist town’s city coffers served as a catalyst for other civil disobedience. Inspired by their courage, demonstrators across the South adopted their “jail not bail” tactic and filled jail cells. The media attention helped turn scattered protests into a nationwide movement.

READ MORE: Seattle PI