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===Civil rights movement=== Rock Hill was the setting for two significant events in the [[civil rights movement]]. In February 1961, nine African-American men went to jail at the [[York County, South Carolina|York County]] prison farm after staging a [[sit-in]] at a [[Racial segregation|segregated]] [[McCrory's]] lunch counter in downtown Rock Hill. The current location is now known as "Kounter" which has the names of the activists engraved. Their offense was reported to be "refusing to stop singing hymns during their morning devotions." The event gained nationwide attention as the men followed an untried strategy called "jail, no bail."<ref name="AP"/> Rejecting bail was a way to lessen the huge financial burden which civil rights groups were facing as the [[sit-in movement]] spread across the South.<ref name="AP">{{cite news |title='Sing-In' Negroes Eat Hearty; Say 'JailโNo Bail' |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Spartanburg Herald |date=February 21, 1961 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=g3ssAAAAIBAJ&pg=7405,2802776&dq=rock+hill+sit-in&hl=en |access-date=December 1, 2010 |quote=Eight Negro Demonstrators in a disciplinary cell at the York County Prison Camp accepted and ate second helpings Monday of the full meal given every third day to prisoners on bread and water. }}</ref> As their actions gained widespread national news coverage, the tactic was adopted by other civil rights groups. The men became known as the [[Friendship Nine]] because eight of the nine men were students at Rock Hill's [[Friendship Junior College]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rawlinson |first=Brittany |date=2004-02-22 |title=The Friendship 9 / January 31, 1961 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-the-friendship-9-january-31/164510165/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=The Herald |page=8C |publication-place=Rock Hill, South Carolina |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |quote=They were students at Friendship College and called themselves the Friendship Nine. The members of this group were James Wells, William "Dub" Massey, Robert McCullough, John Gaines, William "Scoop" Williamson, Willie McLeod, Thomas Gaither, Clarence Graham, Charles Taylor and Mack Workman.}}</ref> Later in 1961, Rock Hill was the first stop in the [[Deep South]] for a group of 13 [[Freedom Riders]], who boarded buses in Washington, DC, and headed South to test the [[Boynton v. Virginia|1960 ruling]] by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] outlawing racial segregation in all interstate public facilities. When the civil rights leader [[John Lewis]] and another black man stepped off the bus at Rock Hill, they were beaten by a white mob that was uncontrolled by police. The event drew national attention. In 2002, Lewis, by then a US Congressman from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], returned to Rock Hill, where he had been invited as a speaker at [[Winthrop University]] and was given the [[key to the city]]. On January 21, 2008, Rep. Lewis returned to Rock Hill again and spoke at the city's [[Martin Luther King Jr. Day]] observance. Mayor Doug Echols officially apologized to him on the city's behalf for the Freedom Riders' treatment in the city.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schonberg |first=Jessica |date=2008-01-22 |title=Thank you, my brother |url=https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/article12206531.html |access-date=2016-01-18 |website=The Herald}}</ref> [[File:Group of men and girls working in the Aragon Mill. Rock Hill, S.C. - NARA - 523538.jpg|thumb|upright|Child laborers at Aragon Mill in Rock Hill, 1912. Photo by [[Lewis Hine]].]]
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