Biography
Charles Thomas was a Black prisoner at Stateville Prison in Joliet, Illinois, whose letter published in Workers World on June 13, 1975 requested support for federal litigation against alleged racist abuse by prison officials. He identified his lawsuits as Thomas v. Pate and Thomas v. Sielaff and described their ages as nine and two years. His allegations that guards secretly operated as Ku Klux Klan members remain attributed to his letter, rather than an established judicial finding. The letter explicitly establishes continuing prison custody but supplies no underlying charge, admission date, sentence or release. Source: https://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/ww1975-0613-v17n24.pdf#page=11
