Gaither speaks on panel about South Carolina’s civil rights movement

Feb. 12, 2021

Thomas Gaither, a retired Slippery Rock University biology professor, spoke on a virtual panel discussion, Feb. 1, about the civil rights movement in South Carolina. Gaither is one of the “Friendship 9” civil rights activists who in 1961 conducted a lunch counter sit-in to protest South Carolina segregation laws. The panel, in recognition of Black History Month, was moderated by Adolphus Belk, professor of political science at Winthrop University, and featured author Claudia Smith Brinson, who recently released her book “Stories of Struggle: The Clash over Civil Rights in South Carolina.” Gaither was an SRU faculty member from 1968-2007.