The death was announced in a family statement, but no cause was noted. “The amazing thing about the Friendship Nine,” Dr. Gaither said in the oral history, “was that we took essentially a ...

The local news no longer covered them. Then, in 1961, a 22-year-old organizer, Thomas Gaither, introduced a new tactic. In the next sit-in, at the lunch counter of a McCrory’s dime store in Rock ...