‘Fighter for all’: Rock Hill, SC, Friendship 9 civil rights icon Willie McCleod dies
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Highlighting Black voices in the Rock Hill region during Black History Month
This month, in honor of Black History Month, The Herald is highlighting voices in the region who you may not have heard. These are Black people who quietly have an impact in our communities.
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Willie McCleod, a member of the Friendship Nine from Rock Hill who as a teen helped spark a national civil rights movement against segregation in South Carolina and America, has died.
McCleod died at home in Rock Hill late on New Year’s Eve, said Sabrina Gast, York County Coroner. He was 78.
McCleod was a vocal and life-long champion for Black equality. He was 18 in 1961 when he and eight others from Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill spent a month in the York County jail after they were convicted of trespassing after they sat at an all-white segregated lunch counter.
“This was not about the Friendship Nine; it was not about me. It was about the improvement of a people,” McCleod told The Herald in January 2011 on the 50th anniversary of the day he was arrested. “It was about our future. All of us.”
The convictions of the Friendship Nine for trespassing were vacated in 2015 by York County officials in a ceremony that was covered nationally. York County officials apologized for the convictions that were based solely on the African-American race of those arrested for seeking equal treatment.
“It was my great honor to know Mr. McCleod and play a part in sharing his story of principle and courage with the world,” Kevin Brackett, 16th Circuit Solicitor who vacated the convictions, said in an interview Friday. “Men like the Friendship Nine are rare. We are poorer today for the loss of Willie McCleod.”
David Williamson Jr., another member of the Friendship Nine, described McCleod as a fighter for all people. The men had been friends since childhood.
“Willie’s whole purpose in life was to help somebody else,” Williamson said in an interview. “He gave all his life. He gave to others so that they might have a better life. What a great man.”
Friendship Nine member Willie “Dub” Massey said McCleod was a problem-solver and family man who dedicated all his adult life to equality. Massey, like Williamson, knew McCleod all his life.
“He was instrumental in keeping the story of the Friendship Nine alive,” Massey said of McCleod.
They chose jail rather than pay a fine
The Friendship Nine was a group of eight students and a civil rights organizer who sat down at the McCrory’s lunch counter on Jan. 31, 1961. They were arrested, then convicted the next day and sentenced to 30 days in jail or a $100 fine. They chose jail to prove the point that segregation was wrong, and spent the month at hard labor at the York County Prison Farm.
Sit-ins started in Greensboro, N.C., in early 1960. The Friendship Nine decided to forego paying the bail, or fine, for their 1961 conviction to prove their point about the inequalities of segregation. The “Jail, no Bail” movement started by the Rock Hill protesters then was picked up in other parts of the country.
Their heroic actions started a public outcry against segregation and Jim Crow and led to others staying in jail after arrests for fighting legalized segregation.
For decades McCleod spoke to schools, community groups and South Carolina and national organizations about his role in the civil rights movement. The S.C. General Assembly honored the Friendship Nine in 2015.
McCleod wanted people to know why he and his friends and classmates risked their safety and futures by sitting down at the lunch counter, then going to jail for a month.
“My record for fighting segregation was always something I was proud of,” McCleod told The Herald in 2015 before the convictions were vacated. “I don’t want it erased. I want people to remember what we did and why we did it.”
One of McCleod’s three children, his daughter Ra’Ronisha, described her father as a leader for not just civil rights but in the hopes and dreams of all Americans.
“My father spent his whole life making his community a better, more loving place for everyone,” Ra’Ronisha McCleod said. “He was a strong man, a person who cared about the rights of all people and a sense of love for all people.”
A York County native, McCleod ran a grading business all his adult life in the county after finishing Emmett Scott High School and Friendship College and serving in the United States Army.
Other friendship Nine members who have died are Robert McCullough, Clarence Graham and James Wells. Surviving members are Willie “Dub” Massey, John Gaines, Mack Workman, Thomas Gaither, and David Williamson Jr.
Funeral services have not yet been set.
This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 2:08 PM.
