Editorial: ‘This is for all of humanity’

Monday, Aug. 14, 2006 | 7:27 a.m.

The news last week carried the obituary of Robert L. McCullough. Although his name is not widely known, he played an important role in the civil rights movement.

It was Jan. 31, 1961, when McCullough and nine others walked into McCrory's lunch counter in Rock Hill, S.C., and ordered hamburgers and drinks. As all 10 were black, they were refused service and arrested for trespassing, according to McCullough's obituary in The New York Times.

Authorities undoubtedly expected them to accept the usual penalty, a $100 fine that actually amounted to much more after bail and late-payment fees were added. Instead, McCullough, the group's leader, and eight of the others lived up to a prepared slogan, "Jail, no bail."

This meant 30 days of hard labor at a jail where disinfectant fumes in the cells burned their eyes, where the steel bunks had no mattresses and where stretches of solitary confinement with nothing but bread and water to eat were routine.

The young men made national news as the "Friendship Nine," as they were students at Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill. Their tactic caught on, and soon citations for daring to order in a whites-only restaurant no longer meant some quick cash for local governments. Putting protesters up in jail for 30 days began costing taxpayers around the South some big money.

The Times obituary noted that author Taylor Branch wrote that the actions of the Friendship Nine served as "an emotional breakthrough for the civil rights movement." Their actions brought widespread attention to the injustice of segregation.

We believe that McCullough, 64 at the time of his death, should also be eternally remembered for a comment he made when one of the Friendship Nine began having second thoughts about accepting the hard-time penalty. "It's not just about you," McCullough told him. "This is for all of humanity."