ROCK HILL, S.C. — Thomas Gaither was sentenced to a month of hard labor in 1961 after attempting to order a hamburger at a whites-only lunch counter.

On Wednesday, a South Carolina judge rescinded the trespassing charge on Gaither, now living in Prospect, and 8 other members of the “Friendship Nine” who were part of the organized sit-in.

Gaither watched the hearing held in Rock Hill, S.C., on national television. He was unable to travel to the event due to his wife's health, but his son attended in his place.

“I am very gratified,” Gaither said about the charges being dropped after more than half a century. “Justice can take a long time but justice was done.”

Six of the nine men were in attendance at the hearing, which was in front of a full courtroom.

“The motion was made to vacate the charges against us,” Gaither said. “The judge who did it is the nephew of the one who convicted us 54 years ago.”

Gaither, 77, was working for the Congress of Racial Equality in 1961 when he helped organize the sit-in at the counter inside the McCrory's five and dime store in Rock Hill.

He recruited students from the nearby Friendship College to participate in the protest.

The plan was simple — the group of men walked into the store and sat down at the whites-only lunch counter to order food, knowing that they would be arrested almost instantly.

Gaither said the group also knew they would be given the choice to either pay a $100 fine or serve a month in jail doing hard labor.

“The usual practice up until that time was to pay the fine,” Gaither said. “But we felt it was important not to pay the fine and do the hard labor to send a stronger message.”

It took less than a minute before officers pulled the men off the stools and charged the men with trespassing.

“We could have ordered food anywhere else in there,” Gaither said. “The moment we sat down, suddenly we were in violation of the law.”

While the sit-in was brief, Gaither said the group planned months in advance for the protest, training on how to protest in nonviolent tactics.

Having a peaceful protest was one of the key objectives for the group.

“We were trying to intensify our commitment to nonviolent tactics to promote social change,” he said.

The other key part of the protest was to go through with the prison sentence instead of putting money back into the system oppressing them.

“There were actually 10 of us arrested,” Gaither said. “But one of the 10 had second thoughts on the month of hard labor and paid the $100 fine.”

Gaither said the men who went to jail spent their days loading sand into a large truck.

While the men originally thought they were serving some purpose by loading the trucks, they later found out it was just busy work.

The sand was simply moved back-and-forth between two piles that the men were taken to to reload into the truck.

“At first we thought we were being useful,” Gaither said. “But their idea was to break us.”

The story of Gaither and his peers was told in the children's book “No Fear for Freedom: The Story of the Friendship Nine” by author Kim Johnson.

Gaither said the story, published last year, included commentary for adults and helped lead to the hearing to clear the charges against the men.

“I hope we inspire young people solving problems with nonviolent techniques,” he said.

After serving his time in South Carolina, Gaither continued to be a part of other civil rights movements.

He said he moved to Jackson, Miss., to help organize a Freedom Ride.

“It was very dangerous,” Gaither said of his time as an activist. “But we were convinced what we were doing was right and needed done at that time.”

Gaither eventually went back to college and received a doctoral degree in biology from the University of Iowa.

He became a biology professor at Slippery Rock University in 1968 and worked there for nearly four decades.

Gaither said he stays in contact with the other members of the Friendship Nine.

“We still get together regularly,” Gaither said.

He said he was happy to see the story brought to light again.

“This is American history,” Gaither said. “This is part of the past seldom discussed.”