Biography
Black poet, painter, and civil rights activist and one of the 'Charlotte Three,' convicted in 1972 in Charlotte, North Carolina on conspiracy and arson charges for the burning of a riding stable. The U.S. National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice (1980) cited the case as a clear example of political repression: the all-but-one-white jury relied on two witnesses with long criminal records who were secretly paid $4,000 each by government authorities and later recanted, and a Justice Department memo described the prosecution as singling out 'young Black activists' to silence racial protest. Reddy and his codefendants Jim Grant and Charles Parker were widely regarded as political prisoners during their incarceration.
T.J. Reddy was a Charlotte–based civil rights and antiwar activist whose political work intersected with cultural organizing; he was also widely known for using poetry and visual art as part of community life and political expression. His activism took shape in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when local struggles over segregation, policing, and the Vietnam-era draft mobilized many young organizers.
In late 1971, he was arrested with James Grant and Charles Parker in connection with the 1968 burning of Lazy B Stables. In 1972, all three were convicted; Reddy received a 20-year sentence. The prosecution became a long-running civil-rights controversy, fueled by concerns about the quality of evidence and later disclosures about witness arrangements. James B. Hunt Jr. ultimately commuted the sentences in 1979, and Reddy returned to Charlotte, where he continued community-focused work through art and public engagement.
