James Wells, 77, member of group arrested over lunch counter sit-in
ROCK HILL, S.C. — James Wells, a member of a South Carolina civil rights protest group known as the Friendship Nine, has died.
Monique Ramseur with the Robinson Funeral Home confirmed that the Rock Hill lawyer died at his home Sunday at age 77.
Wells spent a month in jail in 1961 after he and eight other black men were charged with trespassing at a whites-only lunch counter in Rock Hill, The Herald of Rock Hill reported.
The men, who were attending Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill, chose to spend a month in jail rather than paying a fine in what was called the “Jail, no Bail” movement. Their time on a chain gang in York County encourage protesters to stay in jail to fight segregation, Jim Crow laws and other forms of racism.
The convictions of Wells and the other members of the Friendship Nine were overturned in 2015. York County prosecutors apologized to the group for their arrest and time in jail.
“Jim Wells was one of our quiet leaders, an inspiration to all of us,” said David Williamson, another member of the Friendship Nine. “He was so smart and gentle. A great, great man.”
Wells and other members of the Friendship Nine are honored with stools at the former lunch counter where the protests took place. There also are signs and markers about the group around the city.
“Jim Wells was a friend of mine my whole life,” said Willie McCleod, another member of the group. “He believed in what we were doing back then, and was willing, like all of us, to go to jail for what was right.”
Ramseur did not know how Wells died. She was meeting with family members Monday afternoon to make arrangement for the funeral.
Wells, an Air Force veteran, is the third member of the group to die. Robert McCullough died in 2006 and Clarence Graham died in 2016.
Carington, last survivor of Churchill’s government
LONDON — Peter Carington, a long-serving British politician who was the last survivor of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s government, has died, the government said Tuesday. He was 99.
The House of Lords website said he died Monday.
Known for being both refined and personable, Carington served as an agriculture minister in Churchill’s post-World War II government. He went on to hold several of the top jobs in British politics, including defense secretary and foreign secretary. He also was NATO secretary-general in the mid-1980s when there was a clear thawing in relations between Washington and Moscow.
“There can be few people who have served our country for as long, and with such dedication, as Lord Carrington did — from his gallantry as a tank commander in the Second World War, for which he was awarded the Military Cross, to his service in government under two monarchs and six prime ministers, dating back to Winston Churchill,” Prime Minster Theresa May said.
In Britain, he is perhaps best remembered for his role in ending 14 years of deadlock in the former British colony of Rhodesia, steering it to independence as black-ruled Zimbabwe in 1980.
Remains of WWII airman laid to rest at Arlington
A U.S. service member killed during World War II when his plane was shot down over France has been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. John H. Canty of Winsted, Conn., was 22 when his B-26 Marauder with a crew of eight crashed in 1944.
His remains were identified by scientists using DNA analysis, and on Tuesday he received a burial with full military honors at the cemetery outside Washington, D.C.
A horse-drawn wagon carried his remains to the burial site at the service attended by over a dozen relatives from Connecticut, Georgia and Illinois. The flag from the casket was presented to Canty’s nephew, 78-year-old Wayne Brazeau, of Moultrie, Ga.