David Boone was born on December 3, 1932.  At the age of 18, he left his home in Kentucky to join The Oratory, a Catholic society with an important presence in Rock Hill.  He is known affectionately as “Brother David” to generations of local citizens.

 

When he arrived in Rock Hill, he could have simply performed his duties with the Church, but that is not what he did.  Instead, Brother David became an early and vocal participant in the African American community’s efforts to break the Jim Crow system of segregation and repression.

 

He supported the integration of St. Anne’s Parochial School, which in 1954 became South Carolina’s first integrated school, and even drove African American students to and from school every day.  He raised funds to support private transportation during Rock Hill’s 1957 bus boycott.  He joined the NAACP, serving as its Treasurer for many years, and helped to organize civil rights marches and sit-ins beginning in the early 1960s.  Brother David participated in dozens of downtown Rock Hill lunch counter sit-ins, including the January 31, 1961 sit-in by the Friendship 9.  He was never arrested with the others because he was white.  However, he told them, “I will stand with you and I will never leave you.”  In 1965, after persisting for seven years, Brother Boone was the catalyst for integration of the City’s softball and basketball leagues.  For his efforts in support of civil rights, Brother David faced decades of open hostility and threats from the white community and for years was known as the “most hated white person in South Carolina.”  He has said that every time he left Crawford Road for other parts of town, he would take a different route and always watched for trouble in his rear view mirror.

​