 Finally, in 1979, North Carolina Jim Hunt commuted all three men's sentences after a vigorous campaign by state, national, and international activists on their behalf.Charlotte, North Carolina had a reputation as a forward-thinking city in that it wasn't supposed to have the same racial discrimination that the cities in the Deep South had.Charlotte was called a "New South city" but many of its residents still harbored the same racial discrimination, and "clung to Jim Crow segregation" as strongly as residents of Mobile, Alabama and Jackson, Mississippi, stereotypical anti-black cities.