Rock Hill was the setting for two significant events in the Civil Rights Movement. In February 1961, nine Black men staged a sit-in at the segregated McRory’s lunch counter. Later in 1961, Rock Hill was the first stop in for a group of 13 Freedom Riders, who boarded buses in Washington, DC, and headed South to test the 1960 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing racial segregation in all interstate public facilities.