Biography
Thomas Walter Gaither, born November 12, 1938 in Great Falls, South Carolina, was a Claflin College graduate and CORE field secretary who organized and trained the Friendship Junior College students behind the Rock Hill "jail, no bail" protest — he was not one of the eight Friendship students himself. Ten men were arrested at the McCrory's lunch counter on January 31, 1961; one paid his fine, while Gaither and eight Friendship students refused the fines and served the hard-labor sentence at the York County Prison Farm, becoming known collectively as the Friendship Nine. Convicted February 1, he began the sentence on February 2 and was released on March 2, 1961, two days before the nominal completion of the thirty-day term. He later earned a PhD and taught biology at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania from 1968 until his retirement. He died on December 23, 2024 in Prospect, Pennsylvania.
