Larry Guy

Released
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1980s
State:Michigan
Support
Black Liberation Black Liberation Movement
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Biography

Larry Guy was listed as a Black-liberation political prisoner held at the State Prison of Southern Michigan (Jackson) in U.S. political-prisoner directories of the 1980s. Detailed, reliably-sourced information about his case was not available; this entry preserves the directory listing.

Guy was the leader of the Coalition to End Police Brutality and Racism in Battle Creek, Michigan, and a citizen of the Republic of New Afrika. A 1984 Calhoun County grand jury that subpoenaed as many as 200 people from the Black community — children as young as six among them — was aimed, in the movement's assessment, at destroying the Coalition and obtaining indictments against Guy in particular, after a four-year campaign that included death threats, frame-up charges, SWAT raids and cross-burnings (JBAKC, Stop the Grand Jury!, November 1984).

Case

State Prison of Southern Michigan
Charges: Concealed-weapons charge.
Sentence: Originally 3 to 5 years; increased to 6 to 10 years under Michigan's habitual-criminal statute in March 1981. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted of the concealed-weapons charge by an all-white jury in August 1980 and sent to the State Prison of Southern Michigan at Jackson. In March 1981 the state used Michigan's "habitual criminal" law to increase his sentence. Charges as recorded: Concealed-weapons charge. In June 1979 police stopped Larry Guy along with his brother Robert and their cousin Willie, beat Larry unconscious, and arrested him — claiming he had a handgun — amid the Guy family's organizing against police brutality in Battle Creek, Michigan. Supporters and the Revolutionary Worker described the charge as a trumped-up frame-up.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Michigan

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