Charlotte Three

The Charlotte Three, consisting of T.J. Reddy, James Grant, and Charles Parker, were a group of men arrested and convicted in Charlotte, North Carolina for the burning of Lazy B Stables, a horse stable. The burning took place on September 24, 1968, one year after Lazy B Stables was integrated. All three men were arrested and implicated in the arson on December of 1971, a full three years after the incident. The men were eventually convicted for their presumed actions, and were unsuccessful in having their appeals accepted, with the Supreme Court rejecting their motions. They were all well known radical activists in Charlotte and some people claimed their arrest was aimed at stopping their political motives. Many observers believed that this case was a representation of the still heavily racist American South of the 1970s, and the various underhanded methods prosecutors were willing to utilize to obtain convictions against African Americans. The Charlotte Three were victims in the eyes of some, of an American South that was still reeling from widespread integration and general mistrust in Black affairs. The men were held against their will incorrectly not for crimes that they did not commit, but because of the social change they worked hard to attain. Finally, in 1979, North Carolina Jim Hunt commuted all three men's sentences commuted after a vigorous campaign by state, national, and international activists on their behalf.