McCory’s Civil Rights Sit-Ins – The Friendship Nine

The historic marker outside Kounter, a restaurant housed in the former McCrory’s Five & Dime, memorializes events that began Feb. 12, 1960, when Black students from Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill were denied service at the lunch counter but refused to leave. Almost a year later, on Jan. 31, 1961, 10 students from the college were again denied service at McCrory’s, but this time they were arrested when they refused to leave. Nine would not pay their fines and became the first civil rights sit-in protesters in the nation to serve jail time. This new “jail, no bail” strategy by the group that became known as the “Friendship Nine” was soon adopted as the model for the Freedom Rides of 1961. Today, visitors can see the fully restored lunch counter inside the modern restaurant.