“R” is for Rock Hill Movement

“R” is for Rock Hill Movement. Following the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery and the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins in Greensboro, African Americans in Rock Hill took the lead in energizing the civil rights movement in South Carolina. In 1957 boycott of the local city bus company resulted in its bankruptcy and the creation of a Black-operated alternative transportation company. In 1960, students at Friendship Junior College organized sit-ins at downtown Rock Hill stores. In January 1961 students arrested refused bail. Their action was the first “jail, no bail” declaration of the civil rights movement and brought the Rock Hill demonstrators national attention. The sit-ins that began in Rock Hill soon spread across the state. Although, the Rock Hill movement failed in its immediate effort to desegregate downtown businesses, its participants influenced civil rights activists across the South.