The Friendship 9, at this point, had served more than half of their time at the Prison Camp before the authorities found a reason to put them in solitary confinement. The reasons are not as clear as the newspapers said as to why they were confined, but none of the reasons were reasonable.
Some newspapers wrote that one of the men made a pass at one of the prison guards, but this is not true at all. Some other newspapers say that the men began to sing hymns in their cells and refused to discontinue. The Prison Farm officials said that they boys refused to work, but this is also false.
“They locked all nine of us up in a 7-by-9 foot solitary confinement cell for three days, with nothing but what we brought in there with us,” said Williamson. “One of the inmates snuck us a Baby Ruth candy bar, which we ended up splitting nine ways. That experience brought us closer together.”
Beside that Baby Ruth, they decided that they would refuse to eat, or go on a hunger strike. This was another way for them to protest, but also the bread that they were given was barely edible.
Right after they were released from this tiny cell, they were expected to pick back up their hard labor duties. And remember, they had almost twice as much work as the rest of the prisoners!
