SC raised...flag in 1961 to insult nine black protesters — and took it down to honor nine slain

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/sc-raised-confederate-flag-in-1961-to-insult-nine-black-protesters-and-took-it-down-to-honor-nine-slain/

SC raised Confederate flag in 1961 to insult nine black protesters — and took it down to honor nine slain
Travis Gettys
09 Jul 2015 at 11:14 ET

Friendship Nine (CBS News)


A peculiar historical symmetry exists between South Carolina’s decision to raise the Confederate flag in 1961 and the state’s overnight vote Thursday to bring it down.

The flag was first hoisted over the Statehouse on April 11, 1961, as part of the centennial celebration of the firing on Fort Sumter, which opened the Civil War.

The flag was flown at the request of Aiken Rep. John A. May, who introduced a resolution during the next legislative session to display the flag over the Statehouse, and lawmakers approved his measure March 16, 1962 – after the flag had remained flying for nearly a year.

Just weeks before the Confederate battle flag was first hoisted, 10 black students from Friendship Junior College were arrested on Jan. 31, 1961, and convicted the following day after they refused to leave an all-white lunch counter in Rock Hill.

Nine of those students, who became known as the Friendship Nine, revolutionized the civil rights movement by refusing bail.

snip//

“We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history,” said Judge John C. Hayes III. “Now, as to the Friendship Nine, is the time and opportunity to do so. Now is the time to recognize that justice is not temporal, but is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

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http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/sc-raised-confederate-flag-in-1961-to-insult-nine-black-protesters-and-took-it-down-to-honor-nine-slain/