The Freedom Walkway in downtown Rock Hill, S.C., takes its design from the Civil Rights Movement of 1960, which commemorates the sit-in, an often-used method of civil disobedience. Black college students adopted the method of going to segregated lunch counters and ordering food. When they were refused, they would not leave and would be arrested. In January 1961, the Friendship Nine—so named because eight of the nine were students at Friendship Junior College—integrated a whites-only lunch counter at the McCrory’s department store in Rock Hill.
They opted to spend time in jail, rather than pay the fines of a system they believed unjust. Because the sit-ins were continuing to expand throughout the South, protesters who chose to serve time saved the money civil rights groups would otherwise have to pay for court fines. The move gained national attention.
More than 50 years later, in 2015, Judge John C. Hayes III of Rock Hill overturned the convictions of the nine, saying “We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history.” A prosecutor apologized to the eight men who were still living and in court.
Laurel Holtzapple, a registered landscape architect and principal of Groundworks Studio, used the 2015 court hearing as part of the design for Freedom Walkway. The project begins at what once was a Woolworth’s building, not far from the McCrory’s where the Friendship Nine sit-in took place. By 2014, damage to the Woolworth’s roof had left it too dilapidated to restore. A proposal to demolish the building for a mix of retail and apartments, as well as a public walkway connecting
a parking lot to the business district, was approved.
An exterior brick wall covered with layers of paint from past advertisements provides a backdrop to the Freedom Walkway. A chimney from the Woolworth’s building was painted dark blue, a color that has traditionally symbolized protection in the African-American community and is lighted at night as a beacon of hope.
Curving patterns of clay pavers flow through the walkway, leading visitors on a journey. The nine cylinders of gray granite represent the stools upon which the Friendship Nine sat; swirling blue spiral mosaic patterns within the field of pavers represent the turbulence of the era; the boulders within the walkway represent obstacles in the path of those seeking freedom and justice.
PHOTOS: Matthew Benham Photography
Materials
RED AND COCOA PAVERS: Pine Hall Brick