 Many observers believed that this case was a representation of the still heavily racist Southern United States 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.