By Amanda Spadaro

Butler Eagle Staff Writer

GROVE CITY — Nonviolence is the answer to addressing contemporary racism according to Thomas Gaither, a member of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

Gaither spoke Sunday at the Mount Olive Baptist Church during its Black History Celebration Service. Gaither, 77, of Prospect, is a retired biology professor at Slippery Rock University.

Before Gaither’s time in academia, he was a member of the Friendship Nine, a group of young adults who on Jan. 31, 1961, staged a sit-in at a whites-only counter in a McCrory’s five-and-dime store in Rock Hill, S.C.

Only 21 at the time, Gaither helped organize the sit-in, training the others about strategies for nonviolence. The men planned to sit down at the lunch counter, knowing they would be arrested for trespassing.

Those men knew their choice was to pay a $100 fine or spend a month in jail doing hard labor, Gaither said.

He said it was imperative that they chose the month in jail.

Gaither said that even though the NAACP offered to help with the fine, choosing hard labor would make a bigger impact.

“We were not going into this half-cocked,” Gaither said. “All the people had been schooled in Gandhian strategies for nonviolence. At minimum, they were told that you cannot strike back, no matter what happens to you.”

In choosing not to pay the fine, Gaither explained that the group was refusing to monetarily support the institutions that condoned racism. Instead, by choosing labor, the municipalities had to pay to house, clothe and feed the protesters for 30 days.

“The strategy of “Jail, No Bail” had the advantage of shifting the financial responsibility for the movement from the communities where the protesters came from to the municipalities who were enforcing segregating,” he said.

“Instead of our getting arrested and giving them more money to do what they were doing to us, they would have to figure out how to feed us and clothe us and take care of us. This was actually a very important strategic step in the movement because it meant that we could continue sitting in.”

This nonviolent approach was adopted by nearly 7,000 students in the South. Later, Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed the nonviolent approach the Friendship Nine used.

“This really did catch on,” Gaither said. “It was a major thrust forward, making it possible for us to continue the movement.”

Gaither also noted the lack of logic behind the segregation in the first place, pointing out that African-Americans were allowed to be patrons at the McCrory’s. However, they could not sit at the counter.

“You could go in this McCrory’s store and you could buy at any counter in that store. But the moment you sat down at the lunch counter, you were, at that particular point, in violation of the law. Now, how much sense does that make? It makes no sense at all.”

It’s an idea called vertical integration, a humorous interpretation of the law by Harry Golden, an editor and humorist.

In Gaither’s words, “As long as white people and black people were in the same quarters and they were standing, that was OK. But if they sat down, that fundamentally changed the dynamic entirely. ... Perhaps when we eat together, that’s a universal symbol of equality among social people or among peers.”

Last year, the trespassing charges against Gaither and the eight others involved finally were cleared by South Carolina Judge John C. Hayes III, the nephew of the judge who originally convicted the Friendship Nine.

Although Gaither’s protesting had a positive impact, he does not shy away from acknowledging the real danger that he could have found himself in.

“We were the victims of violence,” he said. “And if we had approached (the protest) with a violent temperament, we would’ve simply been killed and no social change would have occurred.”

Today Gaither does not believe that just because the Civil Rights Act was passed and there is an African-American president that the United States is now a post-racial society.

“That’s garbage,” he said. “If we don’t admit that there is racism, we won’t push to talk about racism.”

Gaither believes the idea of a “color blind” society is counterproductive, and it only eliminates or discourages addressing manifestations of racism in society.

“We are at a very dangerous point now where we have people talking about a color-blind society, and even the most heinous acts we see is followed by ‘But I’m not a racist,’” he said.

“That’s dangerous because that means if we don’t recognize that racism exists, there isn’t any thing to work on. And that’s worse than it was before when racial segregation was clearly identifiable.”

Today’s movement against racism is different from that in 1960s, Gaither said, primarily in how “fragmented” today’s activism can be.

“There are occasionally things that happen that hint back to the way things were in the ‘60s but the dynamic in society is fundamentally different,” he said. “I think we have multiple leaders now instead of one single voice speaking for us.”

The key for today’s activists is civil discourse, he said.

“We can’t talk about the issues because instead of listening and reasoning, we’re yelling at each other,” Gaither said. “And what we’re yelling is not, ‘I love you.’ It’s something that is very discordant.

“We must seek that higher ground of how we can get to the point where we can talk to each other. Even if we disagree.”