page_title: Thomas James Reddy
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas James Reddy / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Artist TJ Reddy works on a mural at Piedmont Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
context_page_description: Thomas James "T. J." Reddy was an American artist, poet, activist, and musician.
context_section_description: Reddy was born in Savannah, Georgia. During his childhood, black children were barred from public libraries, so, his school principal turned her house in to a library which he visited often as a passionate reader. His family moved to New York City when he was 14. He moved to Charlotte, N.C. in 1964 to study at Johnson C. Smith University and then transferred to University of North Carolina Charlotte where he helped to found the Black Student Union and the African and Afro-American Studies Department. During the 1960s he was active in Civil Rights activities, protesting the Vietnam War and opposing intensive military draft activities in the black community. Reddy repeatedly visited military recruiting centers, wearing different disguises each time, and handed out antiwar flyers. Reddy received his B.A. in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1974 and a Master's degree in Education from the same university three years later. In the late 1980s, he studied painting in the Master's of Fine Arts program at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
caption: Artist T. J. Reddy works on a mural in Charlotte, N.C.
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