as he sought to energize the sit-in activism and push the limits of nonviolent dissent encouraged by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “We pleaded not guilty,” wrote Mr. Gaither, who died Dec ...

The local news no longer covered them. Then, in 1961, a 22-year-old organizer, Thomas Gaither, introduced a new tactic. In the next sit-in, at the lunch counter of a McCrory’s dime store in Rock ...